H6  WORLD  or  CHANCE 


THE  WORLD   OF   CHANCE 


H  IRovel 


BY 


W.   D.   HOWELLS 

AUTHOR  OF  "A  HAZARD  OF  NEW  FORTUNES" 
"THE  QUALITY  OF  MERCY"  ETC. 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1893 


MOfTJTT 


WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS'S  NOVELS. 

UNIFORM  LIBRARY  EDITION. 

POST  Svo,  CI.OTII. 


THE  WORLD  OF  CHANCE.     $1  50. 
THE  QUALITY  OF  MERCY.     $1  50. 
AN  IMPERATIVE  DUTY.     $1  00. 
THE  SHADOW  OF  A  DREAM.  $1  00. 


A  HAZARD  OF  NEW  FORTUNES. 
2  Vols.,  $2  00. 

ANNIE  KILBURN.     $1  50. 
APRIL  HOPES.    $1  50. 


PUBLISHED   BY   HARPER   &   BROTHERS,  Nicw   YORK. 


Copyright,  1893,  by  WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWKLLS. 
Electrotypod  by  8.  J.  PARKHII.L  &  Co..  Boston. 


THE  WORLD   OF  CHANCE. 


FROM  the  club  where  the  farewell  dinner  was  given 
him,  Ray  went  to  the  depot  of  the  East  &  West  Rail 
road  with  a  friend  of  his  own  age,  and  they  walked  up 
and  down  the  platform  talking  of  their  lives  and  their 
loves,  as  young  men  do,  till  they  both  at  once  found 
themselves  suddenly  very  drowsy.  They  each  pre 
tended  not  to  be  so  ;  his  friend  made  a  show  of  not 
meaning  to  leave  him  till  the  through  express  should 
come  along  at  two  o'clock  and  pick  up  the  sleeping-car 
waiting  for  it  on  the  side  track ;  and  Ray  feigned 
that  he  had  no  desire  to  turn  in,  but  would  much 
rather  keep  walking  and  talking. 

They  got  rid  of  each  other  at  last,  and  Ray  hurried 
aboard  his  sleeper,  and  plunged  into  his  berth  as  soon 
as  he  could  get  his  coat  and  boots  off.  Then  he  found 
himself  very  wakeful.  The  soporific  first  effect  of  the 
champagne  had  passed,  but  it  still  sent  the  blood 
thumping  in  his  neck  and  pounding  in  his  ears  as  he 
lay  smiling  and  thinking  of  the  honor  that  had  been 
done  him,  and  the  affection  that  had  been  shown  him 


154/68 


2  THE    "WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

by  his  fellow-townsmen.  In  the  reflected  light  of 
these  the  future  stretched  brightly  before  him.  He 
scarcely  felt  it  a  hardship  any  more  that  he  should  be 
forced  to  leave  Midland  by  the  business  change  which 
had  thrown  him  out  of  his  place  on  the  Midland  Echo, 
and  he  certainly  did  not  envy  the  friend  who  had  just 
parted  from  him,  and  who  was  going  to  remain  with 
the  new  owners.  His  mind  kept,  in  spite  of  him,  a 
sort  of  grudge  toward  the  Hanks  Brothers  who  had 
bought  the  paper,  and  who  had  thought  they  must 
reduce  the  editorial  force  as  a  first  step  towards  mak 
ing  the  property  pay.  He  could  not  say  that  they  had 
treated  him  unfairly  or  unkindly  ;  they  had  been  very 
frank  and  very  considerate  with  him  ;  but  he  could  not 
conceal  from  himself  the  probability  that  if  they  had 
really  appreciated  him  they  would  have  seen  that  it 
would  be  a  measure  of  the  highest  wisdom  to  keep 
him.  He  had  given  the  paper  standing  and  authority 
in  certain  matters  ;  he  knew  that ;  and  he  smiled  to 
think  of  Joe  Hanks  conducting  his  department.  He 
hoped  the  estimation  in  which  the  dinner  showed  that 
his  fellow-citizens  held  him,  had  done  something  to 
open  the  eyes  of  the  brothers  to  the  mistake  they  had 
made ;  they  were  all  three  at  the  dinner,  and  Martin 
Hanks  had  made  a  speech  expressive  of  regard  and 
regret  which  did  not  reconcile  Ray  to  them.  He  now 
tried  to  see  them  as  benefactors  in  disguise,  and  when 
he  recalled  the  words  of  people  who  said  that  they 
always  thought  he  was  thrown  away  on  a  daily  paper, 
he  was  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the  Hankses  had 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  .1 

probably,  at  least,  not  done  him  an  injury.  He  had 
often  been  sensible  himself  of  a  sort  of  incongruity 
in  using  up  in  ephemeral  paragraphs,  and  even  leading 
articles,  the  mind-stuff  of  a  man  who  had  published 
poems  in  the  Century  Bric-a-brac  and  Harper's  Drawer, 
and  had  for  several  years  had  a  story  accepted  by  the 
Atlantic,  though  not  yet  printed.  With  the  manu 
script  of  the  novel  which  he  was  carrying  to  New 
York,  and  the  four  or  five  hundred  dollars  he  had 
saved  from  his  salary,  he  felt  that  he  need  not  under 
take  newspaper  work  at  once  again.  He  meant  to 
make  a  thorough  failure  of  literature  first.  There 
would  be  time  enough  then  to  fall  back  upon  journal 
ism,  as  he  could  always  do. 

He  counted  a  good  deal  upon  his  novel  in  certain 
moods.  He  knew  it  had  weak  points  which  he  was 
not  able  to  strengthen  because  he  was  too  ignorant  of 
life,  though  he  hated  to  own  it ;  but  he  thought  it  had 
some  strong  ones  too ;  and  he  believed  it  would  suc 
ceed  if  he  could  get  a  publisher  for  it. 

He  had  read  passages  of  it  to  his  friend,  and  San 
derson  had  praised  them.  Ray  knew  he  had  not  en 
tered  fully  into  the  spirit  of  the  thing,  because  he  was 
merely  and  helplessly  a  newspaper  mind,  though  since 
Ray  had  left  the  Eclw,  Sanderson  had  talked  of  leav 
ing  it  too,  and  going  on  to  devote  himself  to  literature 
in  New  York.  Ray  knew  he  would  fail,  but  he 
encouraged  him  because  he  was  so  fond  of  him ;  he 
thought  now  what  a  good,  faithful  fellow  Sanderson 
was.  Sanderson  not  only  praised  the  novel  to  its 


4  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

author,  but  he  celebrated  it  to  the  young  ladies.  They 
all  knew  that  Ray  had  written  it,  and  several  of  them 
spoke  to  him  about  it ;  they  said  they  were  just  dying 
to  see  it.  One  of  them  had  seen  it,  and  when  he 
asked  her  what  she  thought  of  his  novel,  in  the  pre 
tence  that  he  did  not  imagine  she  had  looked  at  the 
manuscript,  it  galled  him  a  little  to  have  her  say  that 
it  was  like  Thackeray ;  he  knew  he  had  imitated 
Thackeray,  but  he  feigned  that  he  did  not  know  ;  and 
he  hoped  no  one  else  would  see  it.  She  recognized 
traits  that  he  had  drawn  from  himself,  and  he  did  not 
like  that,  either ;  in  the  same  way  that  he  feigned  not 
to  know  that  he  had  imitated  Thackeray,  he  feigned 
not  to  know  that  he  had  drawn  his  own  likeness.  But 
the  sum  of  wrhat  she  said  gave  him  great  faith  in  him 
self,  and  in  his  novel.  He  theorized  that  if  its  subtle 
ties  of  thought  and  its  flavors  of  style  pleased  a  girl 
like  her,  and  at  the  same  time  a  fellow  like  Sanderson 
was  taken  with  the  plot,  he  had  got  the  two  essentials 
of  success  in  it.  He  thought  how  delicately  charming 
that  girl  was ;  still  he  knew  that  he  was  not  in  love 
with  her.  He  thought  how  nice  girls  were,  anyway ; 
there  were  lots  of  perfectly  delightful  girls  in  Midland, 
and  he  should  probably  have  fallen  in  love  with  some 
of  them  if  it  had  not  been  for  that  long  passion  of  his 
early  youth,  which  seemed  to  have  vastated  him  before 
he  came  there.  He  was  rather  proud  of  his  vastation, 
and  he  found  it  not  only  fine,  but  upon  the  whole  very 
convenient,  to  be  going  away  heart-free. 

He  had  no  embarrassing  ties,  no  hindering  obliga- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  D 

tions  of  any  kind.  lie  had  no  one  but  himself  to  look 
out  for  in  seeking  his  fortune.  His  father,  after  long 
years  of  struggle,  was  very  well  placed  in  the  little 
country  town  which  Ray  had  come  from  to  Midland ; 
his  brothers  had  struck  out  for  themselves  farther  west ; 
one  of  his  sisters  was  going  to  be  married ;  the  other 
was  at  school.  None  of  them  needed  his  help,  or  was 
in  anywise  dependent  upon  him.  He  realized,  in  think 
ing  of  it  all,  that  he  was  a  very  lucky  fellow ;  and  he 
was  not  afraid  but  he  should  get  on  if  he  kept  trying, 
and  if  he  did  his  best,  the  chances  were  that  it  would 
be  found  out.  He  lay  in  his  berth,  with  a  hopeful  and 
nattered  smile  on  his  lips,  and  listened  to  the  noises  of 
the  station :  the  feet  on  the  platforms  ;  the  voices,  as 
from  some  disembodied  life  ;  the  clang  of  engine  bells  ; 
the  jar  and  clash  and  rumble  of  the  trains  that  came 
and  went,  with  a  creaking  and  squealing  of  their  slow 
ing  or  starting  wheels,  while  his  sleeper  was  quietly 
side-tracked,  waiting  for  the  express  to  arrive  and  pick 
it  up.  He  felt  a  sort  of  slight  for  the  town  he  was  to 
leave  behind ;  a  sort  of  contemptuous  fondness  ;  for 
though  it  was  not  New  York,  it  had  used  him  well ;  it 
had  appreciated  him,  and  Ray  was  not  ungrateful. 
Upon  the  whole,  he  was  glad  that  he  had  agreed  to 
write  those  letters  from  New  York  which  the  Hanks 
Brothers  had  finally  asIEecL  him  to  do  for  the  Echo. 
He  knew  that  they  had  asked  him  under  a  pressure  of 
public  sentiment,  and  because  they  had  got  it  through 
them  at  last  that  other  people  thought  he  would  be  a 
loss  to  the  paper.  He  liked  well  enough  the  notion  of 


6  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

keeping  the  readers  of  the  Echo  in  mind  of  him  ;  if  he 
failed  to  capture  New  York,  Midland  would  always  be 
a  good  point  to  fall  back  upon.  He  expected  his  novel 
to  succeed,  and  then  he  should  be  independent.  But 
till  then,  the  five  dollars  a  week  which  the  Hanks 
Brothers  proposed  to  pay  him  for  his  letters  would  be 
very  convenient,  though  the  sum  was  despicable  in 
itself.  Besides,  he  could  give  up  the  letters  whenever 
he  liked.  He  had  his  dreams  of  fame  and  wealth,  but 
he  knew  very  well  that  they  were  dreams,  and  he  was 
not  going  to  kick  over  his  basket  of  glass  till  they  had 
become  realities. 

A  keen  ray  from  one  of  the  electric  moons  depend 
ing  from  the  black  roof  of  the  depot  suddenly  pierced 
his  window  at  the  side  of  his  drawn  curtain ;  and  he 
felt  the  car  jolted  backward.  He  must  have  been 
drowsing,  for  the  express  had  come  in  unknown  to 
him,  and  w^as  picking  up  his  sleeper.  With  a  faint 
thrill  of  homesickness  for  the  kindly  town  he  was 
leaving,  he  felt  the  train  pull  forward  and  so  out  of  its 
winking  lamps  into  the  night.  He  held  his  curtain 
aside  to  see  the  last  of  these  lights.  Then,  with  a 
luxurious  sense  of  helplessness  against  fate,  he  let  it 
fall;  and  Midland  slipped  back  into  the  irrevocable 
past. 


II. 

THE  next  evening,  under  a  rich,  mild  October  sky, 
the  train  drew  in  towards  New  York  over  a  long 
stretch  of  trestle-work  spanning  a  New  Jersey  estuary. 
Ray  had  thriftily  left  his  sleeper  at  the  station  where 
he  breakfasted,  and  saved  the  expense  of  it  for  the 
day's  journey  by  taking  an  ordinary  car.  He  could 
be  free  with  his  dollars  when  he  did  not  suppose  he 
might  need  them ;  but  he  thought  he  should  be  a  fool 
to  throw  one  of  them  away  on  the  mere  self-indulgence 
of  a  sleeper  through  to  New  York,  when  he  had  no 
use  for  it  more  than  half  way.  He  experienced  the 
reward  of  virtue  in  the  satisfaction  he  felt  at  having 
that  dollar  still  in  his  pocket ;  and  he  amused  himself 
very  well  in  making  romances  about  the  people  who 
got  on  and  off  at  different  points  throughout  the  day. 
He  read  a  good  deal  in  a  book  he  had  brought  with 
him,  and  imagined  a  review  of  it.  He  talked  with 
passengers  who  shared  his  seat  with  him,  from  time  to 
time.  He  ate  ravenously  at  the  station  where  the 
train  stopped  twenty  minutes  for  dinner,  and  he  took 
little  supernumerary  naps  during  the  course  of  the 
afternoon,  and  pieced  out  the  broken  and  abbreviated 
slumbers  of  the  night.  From  the  last  of  these  naps  he 
woke  with  a  sort  of  formless  alarm,  which  he  identified 


8  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

presently  as  the  anxiety  he  must  naturally  feel  at 
drawing  so  near  the  great,  strange  city  which  had  his 
future  in  keeping.  He  was  not  so  hopeful  as  he  was 
when  he  left  Midland ;  but  he  knew  he  had  really  no 
more  cause  now  than  he  had  then  for  being  less  so. 

The  train  was  at  a  station.  Before  it  started,  a 
brakeman  came  in  and  called  out  in  a  voice  of  formal 
warning :  "  This  train  express  to  Jersey  City.  Pas 
sengers  for  way  stations  change  cars.  This  train  does 
not  stop  between  here  and  Jersey  City." 

He  went  out  and  shut  the  door  behind  him,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  young  woman  with  a  baby  in  her 
arms  jumped  from  her  seat  and  called  out,  "  Oh,  dear, 
what  did  he  say  ?  " 

Another  young  woman,  with  another  baby  in  her 
arms,  rose  and  looked  round,  but  she  did  not  say  any 
thing.  She  had  the  place  in  front  of  the  first,  and 
their  two  seats  were  faced,  as  if  the  two  young  women 
were  travelling  together.  Ray  noted,  with  the  interest 
that  he  felt  in  all  young  women  as  the  elements  both 
of  love  and  of  literature,  that  they  looked  a  good  deal 
alike,  as  to  complexion  and  feature.  The  distraction 
of  the  one  who  rose  first  seemed  to  communicate  itself 
to  her  dull,  golden-brown  hair,  and  make  a  wisp  of  it 
come  loose  from  the  knot  at  the  back  of  her  head,  and 
stick  out  at  one  side.  The  child  in  her  arms  was 
fretful,  and  she  did  not  cease  to  move  it  to  and  fro  and 
up  and  down,  even  in  the  panic  which  brought  her  to 
her  feet.  Her  demand  was  launched  at  the  whole  ear 
ful  of  passengers,  but  one  old  man  answered  for  all : 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  9 

"  He  said,  this  train  doesn't  stop  till  it  gets  to  Jersey 
City." 

The  young  woman  said,  "  Oh  I  "  and  she  and  the 
other  sat  down  again,  and  she  stretched  across  the 
fretful  child  which  clung  to  her,  and  tried  to  open  her 
window.  She  could  not  raise  it,  and  the  old  man  who 
had  answered  her  question  lifted  it  for  her.  Then  she 
sank  back  in  her  seat,  and  her  sister,  if  it  was  her 
sister,  leaned  forward,  and  seemed  to  whisper  to  her. 
She  put  up  her  hand  and  thrust  the  loosened  wisp  of 
her  hair  back  into  the  knot.  To  do  this  she  gave  the 
child  the  pocket-book  which  she  seemed  to  have  been 
holding,  and  she  did  not  take  it  away  again.  The 
child  stopped  fretting,  and  began  to  pull  at  its  play 
thing  to  get  it  open ;  then  it  made  aimless  dabs  with 
it  at  the  back  of  the  car  seat  and  at  its  mother's  face. 
She  moved  her  head  patiently  from  side  to  side  to 
escape  the  blows ;  and  the  child  entered  with  more 
zest  into  the  sport,  and  began  to  laugh  and  strike 
harder.  Suddenly,  mid-way  of  the  long  trestle-work, 
the  child  turned  towards  the  window  and  made  a  dab 
at  the  sail  of  a  passing  sloop.  The  pocket-book  flew 
from  its  hand,  and  the  mother  sprang  to  her  feet 
again  with  a  wail  that  filled  the  car. 

"  Oh,  what  shall  I  do !  He's  thrown  my  pocket- 
book  out  of  the  window,  and  it's  got  every  cent  of  my 
money  in  it.  Oh,  couldn't  they  stop  the  train  ?  " 

The  child  began  to  cry.  The  passengers  all  looked 
out  of  the  windows  on  that  side  of  the  aisle ;  and  Ray 
could  see  the  pocket-book  drifting  by  in  the  water.  A 


10  THE  WORLD  OP  CHANCE. 

brakeman  whom  the  young  woman's  lamentation  had 
called  to  the  rescue,  passed  through  the  car  with  a_face 
of-^^S^^^^cpjiapas^ion,  and  spoke  to  the  conductor 
entering  from  the  other  end.  The  conductor  shook 
his  head ;  the  train  kept  moving  slowly  on.  Of 
course  it  was  impossible  and  useless  to  stop.  The 
young  women  leaned  forw^r^ancTTatked  anxiously 
together,  as  Ray  could  see  from  his  distant  seat ;  they 
gave  the  conductor  their  tickets,  and  explained  to  him 
what  had  happened  ;  he  only  shook  his  head  again. 

When  he  came  to  get  Ray's  ticket,  the  young  fellow 
tried  to  find  out  something  about  them  from  him. 

"  Yes,  I  guess  she  told  the  truth.  She  had  all  her 
money,  ten  dollars  and  some  change,  in  that  pocket- 
book,  and  of  course  she  gave  it  to  her  baby  to  play 
with  right  by  an  open  window.  Just  like  a  woman ! 
They're  just  about  as  Jit  as  babies  to  handle  money. 
If  they  had  to  earn  it,  they'd  be  different.  Some 
poor  fellow's  week's  work  was  in  that  pocket-book,  like 
as  not.  They  don't  look  like  the  sort  that  would  have 
a  great  deal  of  money  to  throw  out  of  the  window,  if 
they  was  men." 

"Do  you  know  where  they're  going?"  Ray  asked. 
"  Are  they  going  on  any  further  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no.  They  live  in  New  York.  'Way  up  on 
the  East  Side  somewhere." 

"  But  how  will  they  get  there  with  those  two 
babies  ?  They  can't  walk." 

The  conductor  shrugged.  "Guess  they'll  have  to 
try  it." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


11 


"  Look  here !  "  said  Ray.  He  took  a  dollar  note 
out  of  his  pocket,  and  gave  it  to  the  conductor.  "  Find 
out  whether  they've  got  any  change,  and  if  they 
haven't,  tell  them  one  of  the  passengers  wanted  them 
to  take  this  for  car  fares.  Don't  tell  them  which 
one." 

"  All  right,"  said  the  conductor. 

He  passed  into  the  next  car.  When  he  came  back 
Ray  saw  him  stop  and  parley  with  the  young  women. 
He  went  through  the  whole  train  again  before  he 
stopped  for  a  final  word  with  Ray,  who  felt  that  he 
had  entered^  mtojlie  jDoetry  of  his.  intentions  towards 
the  women,  and  had  made  these  delays  and  detours  of 
purpose.  He  bent  over  Ray  with  a  detached  and 
casual  air,  and  said  : 

"  Every  cent  they  had  was  in  that  pocket-book. 
Only  wonder  is  they  hadn't  their  tickets  there,  too. 
They  didn't  want  to  take  the  dollar,  but  I  guess  they 
had  to.  They  live  'way  up  on  Third  Avenue  about 
Hundred  and  First  Street ;  and  the  one  that  gave  her 
baby  her  money  to  hold  looks  all  played  out.  They 
couldn't  have  walked  it.  I  told  'em  the  dollar  was 
from  a  lady  passenger.  Seemed  as  if  it  would  make 
it  kind  of  easier  for  'em." 

"  Yes,  that  was  right,"  said  Ray. 


*>\ 

.V'1'  ->• 


III. 

WHEN  they  stopped  in  Jersey  City,  "Ray  made  haste 
out  of  the  car  to  see  what  became  of  his  beneficiaries, 
and  he  followed  closely  after  them,  and  got  near  them 
on  the  ferry-boat.  They  went  forward  out  of  the 
cabin  and  stood  among  the  people  at  the  bow  who 
were  eager  to  get  ashore  first.  They  each  held  her 
heavy  baby,  and  silently  watched  the  New  York 
shore,  and  scarcely  spoke. 

Ray  looked  at  it  too,  with  a  sense  of  the  beauty 
/struggling  through  the  grotesqueness  of  the  huge  pan- 
,  orama,  and  evoking  itself  somehow  from  the  grossest 
)  details.  The  ferry-boats  coming  and  going ;  the  great 
barges  with  freight  trains  in  sections  on  them ;  the 
canal-boats  in  tow  of  the  river  steamers ;  the  shabby 
sloops  slouching  by  with  their  sails  half-filled  by  the 
flagging  breeze;  the  ships  lying  at  anchor  in  the 
stream,  and  wooding  the  shore  with  their  masts,  which 
the  coastwise  steamboats  stared  out  of  like  fantastic 
villas,  all  window-shutters  and  wheel-houses ;  the 
mean,  ugly  fronts  and  roofs  of  the  buildings  beyond, 
and  hulking  high  overhead  in  the  further  distance  in 
vast  bulks  and  clumsy  towers,  the  masses  of  those  ten- 
storied  edifices_  which  are  the  necessity  of  commerce 
and  the  despair  of  art,  all  helped  to  compose  the 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  13 

brutal  and  stupid  body  of  the  thing,  whose  soul  was 
collectively  expressed  in  an  incredible  picturesqueness. 
Ray  saw  nothing  amiss  in  it.  This  agglomeration  of 
warring  forms,  feebly  typifying  the  ugliness  of  the 
warring  interests  within  them,  did  not  repulse  him. 
He  was  not  afraid.  He  took  a  new  grip  of  the 
travelling-bag  where  he  had  his  manuscript,  so  that  he 
should  not  be  parted  from  it  for  a  moment  till  it  went 
into  some  publisher's  keeping.  He  would  not  trust  it 
to  the  trunk  which  he  had  checked  at  Midland,  and 
which  he  now  recognized  among  the  baggage  piled  on 
a  truck  near  him.  He  fingered  the  outside  of  his  bag 
to  make  sure  by  feeling  its  shape  that  his  manuscript 
was  all  right  within.  All  the  time  he  was  aware  of 
those  two  young  women,  each  with  her  baby  in  her 
arms,  which  they  amused  with  various  devices,  telling 
them  to  look  at  the  water,  the  craft  going  by,  and  the 
horses  in  the  wagon-way  of  the  ferry-boat.  The 
children  fretted,  and  pulled  the  women's  hair,  and 
clawed  their  hats ;  and  the  passengers  now  and  then 
looked  censoriously  at  them.  From  time  to  time  the 
young  women  spoke  to  each  other  spiritlessly.  The 
one  whose  child  had  thrown  her  pocket-book  away 
never  lost  a  look  of  hopeless  gloom,  as  she  swayed 
her  body  half  round  and  back,  to  give  some  diversion 
to  the  baby.  Both  were  pretty,  but  she  had  the  pale 
ness  and  thinness  of  young  motherhood;  the  other, 
though  she  was  thin  too,  had  the  fresh  color  and  firm 
texture  of  a  young  girl ;  she  was  at  once  less  tragic 
and  more  serious  than  her  sister,  if  it  was  her  sister. 


14  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

When  she  found  Ray  gazing  fixedly  at  her,  she  turned 
discreetly  away,  after  a  glance  that  no  doubt  took  in 
the  facts  of  his  neat,  slight,  rather  undersized  person; 
his  regular  face,  with  its  dark  eyes  and  marked  brows  ; 
his  straight  fine  nose  and  pleasant  mouth ;  his  sprout 
ing  black  moustache,  and  his  brown  tint,  necked  with 
a  few  browner  freckles. 

He  was  one  of  those  men  who  have  no  vanity  con 
cerning  their  persons ;  he  knew  he  was  rather  hand 
some,  but  he  did  not  care ;  his  mind  was  on  other 
things.  When  he  found  those  soft  woman-eyes  linger 
ing  a  moment  on  him  he  had  the  wish  to  please  their 
owner,  of  course,  but  he  did  not  think  of  his  looks,  or 
the  effect  they  might  have  with  her.  He  fancied  know 
ing  her  well  enough  to  repeat  poetry  to  her,  or  of  read 
ing  some  favorite  author  aloud  with  her,  and  making 
her  sympathize  in  his  admiration  of  the  book.  He 
permitted  his  fancy  this  liberty  because,  although  he 
supposed  her  married,  his  fancy  safely  operated  their 
intellectual  intimacy  in  a  region  as  remote  from  expe 
rience  as  the  dreamland  of  sleep.  She  and  her  sister 
had  both  a  sort  of  refinement;  they  were  ladies,  he 
felt,  although  they  were  poorly  dressed,  and  they  some 
how  did  not  seem  as  if  they  had  ever  been  richly 
dressed.  They  had  not  the  New  Yorkeress  air ;  they 
had  nothing  of  the  stylishness  which  Ray  saw  in  the 
other  women  about  him,  shabby  or  splendid ;  their  hats 
looked  as  if  they  had  been  trimmed  at  home,  and  their 
simple  gowns  as  if  their  wearers  had  invented  and 
made  them  up  themselves,  after  no  decided  fashion. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  15 

"but  after  a  taste  of  their  own,  which  he  thought  good. 
He  began  to  make  phrases  about  them  to  himself,  and 
he  said  there  was  something  pathetically  idyllic  about 
them.  The  phrase  was  indefinite,  but  it  was  suffi 
ciently  clear  for  his  purpose.  The  baby  which  had 
thrown  away  the  pocket-book  began  to  express  its  final 
dissatisfaction  with  the  prospect,  and  its  mother  turned 
distractedly  about  for  some  new  diversion,  when  there 
came  from  the  ladies'  cabin  a  soft  whistle,  like  the 
warbling  of  a  bird,  low  and  rich  and  full,  which  pos 
sessed  itself  of  the  sense  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
sounds.  Some  of  the  people  pressed  into  the  cabin ; 
others  stood  smiling  in  the  benediction  of  the  artless 

O 

strain.  Ray  followed  his  idyllic  sisters  within,  and  saw 
an  old  negro,  in  the  middle  of  the  cabin  floor,  lounging 
in  an  easy  pose,  with  his  hat  in  one  hand  and  the  other 
hand  on  his  hip,  while  his  thick  lips  poured  out  those 
mellow  notes,  which  might  have  come  from  the  heart 
of  some  thrush-haunted  wild  wood.  When  the  sylvan 
music  ceased,  and  the  old  negro,  with  a  roll  of  his  large 
head,  and  a  twist  of  his  burly  shape,  began  to  limp 
round  the  circle,  every  one  put  something  in  his  hat. 
Ray  threw  in  a  nickel,  and  he  saw  the  sisters,  who 
faced  him  from  the  other  side  of  the  circle,  conferring 
together.  The  younger  had  the  bill  in  her  hand  which 
Ray  had  sent  them  by  the  conductor  to  pay  their  car 
fares  home.  She  parleyed  a  moment  with  the  negro 
when  he  reached  them,  and  he  took  some  of  the  silver 
from  his  hat  and  changed  the  bill  for  her.  She  gave 
him  a  quarter  back.  He  ducked  his  head,  and  said, 
"  Thank  yeh,  miss,"  and  passed  on. 


16  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

The  transaction  seemed  to  amuse  some  of  the  by 
standers,  and  Ray  heard  one  of  them,  who  stood  near 
him,  say  :  "  Well,  that's  the  coolest  thing  I've  seen  yet. 
'I  should  have  about  as  soon  thought  of  asking  the 
(deacon  to  change  a  bill  for  me  when  he  came  round 
,  with  the  plate  in  church.  Well,  it  takes  all  kinds  to 
I  make  a  world  I  " 

He  looked  like  a  country  merchant,  on  a  first  busi 
ness  visit  to  the  city ;  his  companion,  who  had  an  air 
of  smart  ease,  as  of  a  man  who  had  been  there  often, 
said: 

"  It  takes  all  kinds  to  make  a  town  like  New  York. 
You'll  see  queerer  things  than  that  before  you  get 
home.  If  that  old  darkey  makes  much  on  that  trans 
action,  I'm  no  judge  of  human  nature." 

"  Pshaw !     You  don't  mean  it  wasn't  a  good  bill  ?  " 

The  two  men  lost  themselves  in  the  crowd  now 
pressing  out  of  the  cabin  door.  The  boat  was  push 
ing  into  her  slip.  She  bumped  from  one  elastic  side 
to  the  other,  and  settled  with  her  nose  at  the  wharf. 
The  snarl  of  the  heavy  chains  that  held  her  fast  was 
heard ;  the  people  poured  off  and  the  hollow  thunder 
of  the  hoofs  and  wheels  of  the  disembarking  teams  be 
gan.  Ray  looked  about  for  a  last  glimpse  of  the  two 
young  women  and  their  babies ;  but  he  could  not  see 
them. 


IV. 

RAY  carried  his  bag  himself  when  he  left  the  ele 
vated  road,  and  resisted  the  offer  of  the  small  Italian 
dodging  about  his  elbow,  and  proposing  to  take  it, 
after  he  had  failed  to  get  Ray  to  let  him  black  his 
boots.  The  young  man  rather  prided  himself  on  his 
thrift  in  denying  the  boy,  whose  naked  foot  came  half 
through  one  of  his  shoes ;  he  saw  his  tatters  and  na 
kedness  with  the  jn^ifEejence  ofjnexperience,  and  with 


liis  country  breeding  he  considered  his  Frugality  a  vir-  ^QVV 
tue.  His  senses  were  not  offended  by  the  foulness  of 
the  streets  he  passed  through,  or  hurt  by  their  sordid 
uproar ;  his  strong  young  nerves  were  equal  to  all  the 
assaults  that  the  city  could  make ;  and  his  heart  was 
lifted  in  a  dream  of  hope.  He  was  going  to  a  hotel 
that  Sanderson  had  told  him  of,  where  you  could  get  a 
room,  on  the  European  plan,  for  seventy-five  cents, 
and  then  eat  wherever  you  pleased ;  he  had  gone  to  an 
American  hotel  when  he  was  in  New  York  before,  and 
he  thought  he  could  make  a  saving  by  trying  Sander 
son's.  It  had  a  certain  gayety  of  lamps  before  it,  but 
the  splendor  diminished  within,  and  Ray's  pride  was 
further  hurt  by  the  clerk's  exacting  advance  payment 
for  his  room  from  him.  The  clerk  said  he  could  not 
give  him  an  outside  room  that  night,  but  he  would  try 


18  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

to  change  him  in  the  morning ;  and  Ray  had  either  to 
take  the  one  assigned  him  or  go  somewhere  else.  But 
he  had  ordered  his  trunk  sent  to  this  hotel  by  the  ex 
press,  and  he  did  not  know  how  he  should  manage 
about  that  if  he  left ;  so  he  staid,  and  had  himself 
shown  to  his  room.  It  seemed  to  be  a  large  cupboard 
in  the  wall  of  the  corridor ;  but  it  had  a  window  near 
the  bed,  and  the  usual  equipment  of  stand  and  bureau, 
and  Ray  did  not  see  why  he  should  not  sleep  very  well 
there.  Still,  he  was  glad  that  his  friends  at  Midland 
could  none  of  them  see  him  in  that  room,  and  he  re 
solved  to  leave  the  hotel  as  soon  as  he  could  the  next 
day.  It  did  not  seem  the  place  for  a  person  who  had 
left  Midland  with  the  highest  social  honors  that  could 
be  paid  a  young  man.  He  hurried  through  the  hotel 
office  when  he  came  out,  so  as  not  to  be  seen  by  any 
other  Midlander  that  might  happen  to  be  there,  and  he 
went  down  to  the  basement,  where  the  clerk  said  the 
restaurant  was,  and  got  his  supper.  When  he  had  fin 
ished  his  oyster  stew  he  started  towards  the  street-door, 
but  was  overtaken  at  the  threshold  by  a  young  man 
who  seemed  to  have  run  after  him,  and  who  said, 
"  You  didn't  pay  for  your  supper." 

Ray  said,  "  Oh,  I  forgot  it,"  and  he  went  back  to 
his  table  and  got  his  check,  and  paid  at  the  counter, 
where  he  tried  in  vain  to  impress  the  man  who  took 
his  money  with  a  sense  of  his  probity  by  his  profuse 
apologies.  Apparently  they  were  too  used  to  such 
tricks  at  that  restaurant.  The  man  said  nothing,  but 
he  looked  as  if  he  did  not  believe  him,  and  Ray  was  so 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  19 

abashed  that  he  stole  back  to  his  room,  and  tried  to 
forget  what  had  happened  in  revising  the  manuscript  of 
his  story.  He  was  always  polishing  it ;  he  had  written 
it  several  times  over,  and  at  every  moment  he  got  he 
reconstructed  sentences  in  it,  and  tried  to  bring  the 
style  up  to  his  ideal  of  style ;  he  wavered  a  little  be 
tween  the  style  of  Thackeray  and  the  style  of  Haw 
thorne,  as  an  ideal.  It  made  him  homesick,  now,  to 
go  over  the  familiar  pages  :  they  put  him  so  strongly 
in  mind  of  Midland,  and  the  people  of  the  kindly  city. 
The  pages  smelt  a  little  of  Sanderson's  cigar  smoke ; 
he  wished  that  Sanderson  would  come  to  New  York ; 
he  perceived  that  they  had  also  a  fainter  reminiscence 
of  the  perfume  he  associated  with  that  girl  who  had 
found  him  out  in  his  story  ;  and  then  he  thought  how 
he  had  been  in  the  best  society  at  Midland,  and  it 
seemed  a  great  descent  from  the  drawing-rooms  where 
he  used  to  call  on  all  those  nice  girls  to  this  closet  in  a 
fourth-rate  New  York  hotel.  His  story  appeared  to 
share  his  downfall ;  he  thought  it  cheap  and  poor ;  he 
did  not  believe  now  that  he  should  ever  get  a  publisher 
for  it.  He  cowered  to  think  how  scornfully  he  had 
thought  the  night  before  of  his  engagement  with  the 
Hanks  Brothers  to  write  letters  for  the  Midland  Echo  ; 
he  was  very  glad  he  had  so  good  a  basis ;  he  wondered 
how  far  he  could  make  five  dollars  a  week  go  toward 
supporting  him  in  New  York ;  he  could  not  bear  to 
encroach  upon  his  savings,  and  yet  he  probably  must. 
In  Midland,  you  could  get  very  good  board  for  five 
dollars  a  week. 


20  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

He  determined  to  begin  a  letter  to  the  Echo  at  once  ; 
and  he  went  to  open  the  window  to  give  himself  some 
air  in  the  close  room ;  but  he  found  that  it  would  not 
open.  He  pulled  down  the  transom  over  his  door  to 
keep  from  stifling  in  the  heat  of  his  gas-burner,  and 
some  voices  that  had  been  merely  a  dull  rumbling  be 
fore  now  made  themselves  heard  in  talk  which  Ray 
could  not  help  listening  to. 

Two  men  were  talking  together,  one  very  hopelessly, 
and  the  other  in  a  vain  attempt  to  cheer  him  from  time 
to  time.  The  comforter  had  a  deep  base  voice,  and 
was  often  unintelligible  ;  but  the  disheartened  man 
spoke  nervously,  in  a  high  key  of  plangent  quality, 
like  that  of  an  unhappy  bell. 

"  No,"  he  said  ;  "  I'd  better  fail,  Bill.  It's  no  use 
trying  to  keep  along.  I  can  get  pretty  good  terms 
from  the  folks  at  home,  there ;  they  all  know  me,  and 
they  know  I  done  my  best.  I  can  pay  about  fifty 
cents  on  the  dollar,  I  guess,  and  that's  more  than 
most  business  men  could,  if  they  stopped  ;  and  if  I 
ever  get  goin'  again,  I'll  pay  dollar  for  dollar ;  they 
know  that." 

The  man  with  the  deep  voice  said  something  that 
Ray  did  not  catch.  The  disheartened  man  seemed  not 
to  have  caught  it  either  ;  he  said,  "  What  say  ?  "  arid 
when  the  other  repeated  his  words,  he  said  :  "  Oh  yes  i 
I  know.  But  I  been  dancing  round  in  a  quart  cup  all 
my  life  there ;  and  now  it's  turning  irrto  a  pint  cup, 
and  I  guess  I  better  get  out.  The  place  did  grow  for 
a  while,  and  we  got  all  ready  to  be  a  city  as  soon  as 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  21 

the  railroad  come  along.  But  when  the  road  cpme,  it 
didn't  do  all  we  expected  of  it.  *  We  could  get  out  into 
the  world  a  good  deal  easier  than  we  could  before,  and 
we  had  all  the  facilities  of  transportation  that  we  could 
ask  for.  But  we  could  get  away  so  easy  that  most  of 
our  people  went  to  the  big  towns  to  do  their  trading, 
and  the  facilities  for  transportation  carried  off  most  of 
our  local  industries.  The  luck  was  against  us.  We 
bet  high  on  what  the  roacTwouIcT  do  ~foT~us,  and  we 
lost.  We  paid  out  nearly  our  last  dollar  to  get  the 
road  to  come  our  way,  and  it  came,  and  killed  us.  We 
subscribed  to  the  stock,  and  we've  got  it  yet;  there 
ain't  any  fight  for  it  anywhere  else ;  we'd  let  it  go 
without  a  fight  We  tried  one  while  for  the  car  shops, 
but  they  located  them  further  up  the  line,  and  since 
that  we  ha'n't  even  wiggled.  What  say  ?  Yes ;  but, 
you  see,  I'm  part  of  the  place.  I've  worked  hard  all 
my  life,  and  I've  held  out  a  good  many  times  when 
ruin  stared  me  in  the  face,  but  I  guess  I  sha'n't  hold 
out  this  time.  What's  the  use  ?  Most  every  business 
man  I  know  has  failed  some  time  or  other ;  some  of 
'em  three  or  four  times  over,  and  scrambled  up  and 
gone  on  again,  and  I  guess  I  got  to  do  the  same.  Had 
a  kind  of  pride  about  it,  m'  wife  and  me ;  but  I  guess 
we  got  to  come  to  it.  It  does  seem,  sometimes,  as  if 
the  very  mischief  was  in  it.  I  lost  pretty  heavy,  for 
a  small  dealer,  on  Fashion's  Pansy,  alone  —  got  left 
with  a  big  lot  of  'em.  What  say  ?  It  was  a  bustle. 
Women  kept  askin'  for  Fashion's  Pansy,  till  you'd  'a' 
thought  every  last  one  of  'em  was  going  to  live  and  be 


22 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


buried  in  it.  Then  all  at  once  none  of  'em  wanted  it 
—  wouldn't  touch  it.  That  and  butter  begun  it.  You 
know  how  a  country  merchant's  got  to  take  all  the 
butter  the  women  bring  him,  and  he's  got  to  pay  for 
sweet  butter,  and  sell  it  for  grease  half  the  time.  You 
can  tell  a  woman  she'd  better  keep  an  eye  on  her 
daughter,  but  if  you  say  she  don't  make  good  butter, 
that's  the  last  of  that  woman's  custom.  But  what's 
finally  knocked  me  out  is  this  drop  in  bric-a-brac.  If 
,it  hadn't  been  for  that,  I  guess  I  could  have  pulled 
through.  Then  there  was  such  a  rush  for  Japanese 
goods,  and  it  lasted  so  long,  that  I  loaded  up  all  I 
could  with  'em  last  time  I  was  in  New  York,  and  now 
nobody  wants  'em  ;  couldn't  give  'em  away.  Well,  it's 
all  a  game,  and  you  don't  know  any  more  how  it's 
comin'  out  —  you  can't  bet  on  it  with  any  more  cer 
tainty  —  than  you  can  on  a  trottin'  match.  My !  I 
wish  I  was  dead." 

The  deep-voiced  man  murmured  something  again, 
and  the  high-voiced  man  again  retorted  : 

"  What  say  ?     Oh,  it's  all  well  enough  to  preach  ; 

/and  I've  heard  about  the  law  of  demand  and  supply 

j  before.     There's  about  as  much  of  a  law  to  it  as  there 

is  to  three-card  monte.     If  it  wasn't  for  my  poof 'wife, 

*  I'cl  let  'em  take  melfack  on  ice.     I  would  that." 

The  deep-voiced  man  now  seemed  to  have  risen ; 
there  was  a  shuffling  of  feet,  and  presently  a  parley  at 
the  open  door  about  commonplace  matters ;  and  then 
the  two  men  exchanged  adieux,  and  the  door  shut 
again,  and  all  was  silent  in  the  room  opposite  Ray's. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  23 

He  felt  sorry  for  the  unhappy  man  shut  in  there ;  but 
he  perceived  no  special  significance  in  what  he  had 
overheard.  He  had  no  great  curiosity  about  the  mat 
ter  ;  it  was  one  of  those  things  that  happened  every 
day,  and  for  tragedy  was  in  no  wise  comparable  to  a 
disappointment  in  first  love,  such  as  he  had  carefully 
studied  for  his  novel  from  his  own  dark  experience. 
Still  it  did  suggest  something  to  Ray ;  it  suggested  a 
picturesque  opening  for  his  first  New  York  letter  for 
the  Midland  Echo,  and  he  used  it  in  illustration  of  the 
immensity  of  New  York,  and  the  strange  associations 
and  juxtapositions  of  life  there.  He  treated  the  im 
pending  failure  of  the  country  storekeeper  from  an 
overstock  of  Japanese  goods  rather  humorously :  it 
was  not  like  a  real  trouble,  a  trouble  of  the  heart; 
and  the  cause  seemed  to  him  rather  grotesquely  dis 
proportionate  to  the  effect.  In  describing  the  incident 
as  something  he  had  overheard  in  a  hotel,  he  threw  in 
some  touches  that  were  intended  to  give  the  notion  of 
a  greater  splendor  than  belonged  to  the  place. 

He  made  a  very  good  start  on  his  letter,  and  when 
he  went  to  bed  the  broken  hairs  that  pierced  his  sheet 
from  the  thin  mattress  did  not  keep  him  from  falling 
asleep,  and  they  did  prove  that  it  was  a  horse-hair 
mattress. 


V. 


IN  the  morning,  Ray  determined  that  he  would  riot 
breakfast  at  the  restaurant  under  the  hotel,  partly  be 
cause  he  was  ashamed  to  meet  the  people  who,  he 
knew,  suspected  him  of  trying  to  beat  them  out  of  the 
price  of  his  supper,  and  partly  because  he  had  decided 
that  it  was  patronized  chiefly  by  the  country  merchants 
who  frequented  the  hotel,  and  he  wanted  something 
that  was  more  like  New  York.  He  had  heard  of  those 
foreign  eating-houses  where  you  got  a  meal  served  in 
courses  at  a  fixed  price,  and  he  wandered  about  look 
ing  for  one.  He  meant  to  venture  into  the  first  he 
found,  and  on  a  side  street  he  came  on  a  hotel  with  a 
French  name,  and  over  the  door  in  an  arch  of  gilt  let 
ters  the  inscription,  Restaurant  Fran^ais.  There  was 
a  targe  tub  on  each  side  of  the  door,  with  a  small  ever 
green  tree  in  it ;  some  strings  or  wires  ran  from  these 
tubs  to  the  door-posts  and  sustained  a  trailing  vine 
that  formed  a  little  bower  on  either  hand ;  a  Maltese 
cat  in  the  attitude  of  a  sphinx  dozed  in  the  thicket  of 
foliage,  and  Ray's  heart  glowed  with  a  sense  of  the 
foreignness  of  the  whole  effect.  He  had  never  been 
abroad,  but  he  had  read  of  such  things,  and  he  found 
himself  at  home  in  an  environment  long  familiar  to  his 
fancy. 


THE    WORLD    OP    CHANCE.  25 

The  difference  of  things  was  the  source  of  his  ro 
mance,  as  it  is  with  all  of  us,  and  he  looked  in  at  the 
window  of  this  French  restaurant  with  the  feelings  he  .  \^\ 
would  have  had  in  the  presence  of  such  a  restaurant  in  N^ 
Paris,  and  he  began  to  imagine  gay,  light-minded  pict 
ures  about  it.  At  the  same  time,  while  he  was  figur 
ing  inside  at  one  of  the  small  tables,  vis-a-vis  with  a 
pretty  actress  whom  he  invented  for  the  purpose,  he 
was  halting  on  the  sidewalk  outside,  wondering  whether 
he  could  get  breakfast  there  so  early  as  eight  o'clock, 
and  doubtful  whether  he  should  not  betray  his  strange 
ness  to  New  York  hours  if  he  tried.  When  he  went 
in  there  was  nobody  there  but  one  white-aproned 
waiter,  who  was  taking  down  some  chairs  from  the 
middle  table  where  they  had  been  stacked  with  their 
legs  in  the  air  while  he  was  sweeping.  But  he  did  not 
disdain  to  come  directly  to  Ray,  where  he  had  sat 
down,  with  a  plate  and  napkin  and  knife  and  fork,  and 
exchange  a  good-morning  with  him  in  arranging  them 
before  him.  Then  he  brought  half  a  yard  of  French 
bread  and  a  tenuous,  translucent  pat  of  American  but 
ter  ;  and  asked  Ray  whether  he  would  have  chops  or 
beefsteak  with  his  coffee.  The  steak  came  with  a 
sprig  of  water-cress  on  it,  and  the  coffee  in  a  pot ;  and 
the  waiter,  who  had  one  eye  that  looked  at  Ray,  and 
another  of  uncertain  focus,  poured  out  the  coffee  for 
him,  and  stood  near,  with  a  friendly  countenance,  and 
a  cordial  interest  in  the  young  fellow's  appetite.  By 
this  time  a  neat  dame  de  comptoir,  whom  Ray  knew 
for  a  dame  de  comptoir  at  once,  though  he  had  never 


,, 


. 


26  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

seen  one  before,  took  her  place  behind  a  little  desK  in 
the  corner,  and  the  day  had  begun  for  the  Restaurant 
Fran^ais. 

Ray  felt  that  it  was  life,  and  he  prolonged  his  meal 
to  the  last  drop  of  the  second  cup  of  coffee  that  his 
pot  held,  and  he  wished  that  he  could  have  Sanderson 
with  him  to  show  him  what  life,  xeally^ras  in  New 


York.  Sanderson  had  taken  all  his  meals  in  the  base 
ment  of  that  seventy-five  cent  hotel,  which  Ray  meant 
to  leave  at  once.  Where  he  was  he  would  not  have 
been  ashamed  to  have  any  of  the  men  who  had  given 
him  that  farewell  dinner  see  him.  He  was  properly 
placed,  as  a  young  New  York  literary  man  ;  he  was 
already  a  citizen  of  that  great  Bohemia  which  he  had 
heard  and  read  so  much  of.  He  was  sure  that  artists 
must  come  there,  and  actors,  but  of  course  much  later 
in  the  day.  His  only  misgiving  was  lest  the  taxes  of 
Bohemia  might  be  heavier  than  he  could  pay,  and  he 
asked  the  waiter  for  his  account  somewhat  anxiously. 
It  was  forty  cents,  and  his  ambition  leaped  at  the  pos 
sibility  of  taking  all  his  meals  at  that  place.  He 
made  the  occasion  of  telling  the  cross-eyed  waiter  to 
keep  the  change  out  of  the  half-dollar  he  gave  him, 
serve  for  asking  whether  one  could  take  board  there  by 
the  week,  and  the  waiter  said  one  could  for  six  dollars  : 
a  luncheon  like  the  breakfast,  but  with  soup  and  wine, 
and  a  dinner  of  fish,  two  meats,  salad,  sweets,  and 
coffee.  "  On  Sundays,"  said  the  waiter,  "  the  dinner 
is  something  splendid.  And  there  are  rooms  ;  oh,  yes, 
it  is  a  hotel." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  27 

"  Yes,  I  knew  it  was  a  hotel,"  said  Ray. 

The  six  dollars  did  not  seem  to  him  too  much  ;  but 
he  had  decided  that  he  must  live  on  ten  dollars  a  week 
in  order  to  make  his  money  last  for  a  _full  experiment 
of  New  York,  or  till  he  had  placed  liimsellln"some 
permanent  position  of  profit.  The  two  strains  of  pru- 
strongly  blended  nTHTnT;  he 


could  not  bear  to  think  of  wasting  money,  even  upon 
himself,  whom  he  liked  so  well,  and  whom  he  wished 
so  much  to  have  a  good  time.  He  meant  to  make  his 
savings  go  far  ;  with  those  five  hundred  dollars  he 
could  live  a  year  in  New  York  if  he  helped  himself 
out  on  dress  and  incidental  expenses  with  the  pay  for 
his  Midland  Echo  letters.  He  would  have  asked  to 
see  some  of  the  rooms  in  the  hotel,  but  he  was  afraid 
it  was  too  early,  and  he  decided  to  come  to  din 
ner  and  ask  about  them.  On  his  way  back  to  the 
place  where  he  had  lodged  he  rapidly  counted  the  cost, 
and  he  decided,  at  any  rate,  to  try  it  for  awhile  ;  and 
he  shut  himself  into  his  cupboard  at  tfte  hotel,  and  be 
gan  to  go  over  some  pages  of  his  manuscript  for  the 
last  time,  with  a  lightness  of  heart  which  decision, 
even  a  wrong  decision,  often  brings. 

It  was  still  too  soon  to  go  with  the  story  to  a  pub 
lisher  ;  he  could  not  hope  to  find  any  one  in  before  ten 
o'clock,  and  he  had  a  whole  hour  yet  to  work  on  it. 
He  was  always  putting  the  last  touches  on  it;  but  he 
almost  wished  he  had  not  looked  at  it,  now,  when  the 
touches  must  really  be  the  last.  It  seemed  to  suffer  a 
sort  of  disintegration  in  his  mind.  It  fell  into  witless 


28  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

and  repellent  fragments  ;  it  lost  all  beauty  and  coher 
ence,  so  that  he  felt  ashamed  and  frightened  with  it, 
and  he  could  not  think  what  the  meaning  of  it  had 
once  so  clearly  been.  He  knew  that  no  publisher 
would  touch  it  in  the  way  of  business,  and  he  doubted 
if  any  would  really  have  it  read  or  looked  at.  It 
seemed  to  him  quite  insane  to  offer  it,  and  he  had  to 
summon  an  impudently  cynical  courage  in  nerving 
himself  to  the  point.  The  best  way,  of  course,  would 
have  been  to  get  the  story  published  first  as  a  serial,  in 
one  of  the  magazines  that  had  shown  favor  to  his 
minor  attempts ;  and  Ray  had  tried  this  pretty  fully. 
The  manuscript  had  gone  the  rounds  of  a  good  many 
offices  ;  and  returned,  after  a  longer  or  shorter  sojourn, 
bearing  on  some  marginal  corner  the  hieroglyphic  or 
numerical  evidence  that  it  had  passed  through  the 
reader's  hand  in  each.  Ray  innocently  fancied  that  he 
suppressed  the  fact  by  clipping  this  mark  away  with 
the  scissors ;  but  probably  no  one  was  deceived.  In 
looking  at  it  n6w  he  was  not  even  deceived  himself ; 
the  thing  had  a  desperately  worn  and  battered  air ;  it 
was  actually  dog's-eared ;  but  he  had  still  clung  to  the 
hope  of  getting  it  taken  somewhere,  because  in  all  the 
refusals  there  was  proof  that  the  magazine  reader  had 
really  read  it  through ;  and  Ray  argued  that  if  this 
were  so,  there  must  be  some  interest  or  property  in  it 
that  would  attract  the  general  reader  if  it  could  ever 
be  got  to  his  eye  in  print. 

He  was  not  wrong ;  for  the  story  was  fresh  and  new, 
in  spite  of  its  simple-hearted,  unconscious  imitations  of 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  29 

the  style  and  plot  of  other  stories,  because  it  was  the 
soul  if  not  the  body  of  his  first  love.  He  thought  that 
he  had  wrapped  this  fact  impenetrably  up  in  so  many 
travesties  and  disguises  that  the  girl  herself  would  not 
have  known  it  if  she  had  read  it ;  but  very  probably 
she  would  have  known  it.  Any  one  who  could  read 
between  the  lines  could  penetrate  through  the  innocent 
psychical  posing  and  literary  affectation  tojlie  truth 
of  conditions  strictly  and  peculiarly  American,  an^Tt 
was  this  which  Ray  had  tried  to  conceal  with  all  sorts 
of  alien  splendors  of  make  and  manner.  It  seemed  to 
him  now,  at  the  last  moment,  that  if  he  could  only  up 
root  what  was  native  and  indigenous  in  it,  he  should 
make  it  a  strong  and  perfect  thing.  He  thought  of 
writing  it  over  again,  and  recoloring  the  heroine's 
hair  and  the  hero's  character,  and  putting  the  scene  in 
a  new  place ;  but  he  had  already  rewritten  it  so  many 
times  that  he  was  sick  of  it ;  and  with  all  his  changing 

1  he  had  not  been  able  to  change  it  much.  He  decided 
to  write  a  New  York  novel,  and  derive  the  hero  from 
Midland,  as  soon  as  he  could  collect  the  material ;  the 

1  notion  for  it  had  already  occurred  to  him;  the  hero 
should  come  on  with  a  play ;  but  first  of  all  it  would 
be  necessary  for  Ray  to  get  this  old  novel  behind  him, 
and  the  only  way  to  do  that  was  to  get  it  before  the 
public. 


VI. 

RAY  put  his  manuscript  back  into  its'  covering1,  and 
took  it  under  his  arm.     He  meant  to  make  a  thorough 

o 

trial  of  the  publishers,  and  not  to  be  discouraged  by 
his  failures  as  long  as  a  publisher  was  left  untried. 
He  knew  from  his  experience  with  the  magazine  edi 
tors  that  it  would  be  a  slow  affair,  and  he  must  have 
patience.  Some  of  the  publishers,  even  if  they  did  not 
look  at  his  story,  would  keep  it  for  days  or  weeks  with 
the  intention  or  the  appearance  of  reading  it,  and  if 
they  did  read  it  they  would  of  course  want  time  for  it. 
He  expected  this,  and  he  calculated  that  it  might  very 
well  take  his  manuscript  six  months  to  go  the  rounds 
of  all  the  houses  in  New  York.  Yet  he  meant,  if  he 
could,  to  get  it  through  sooner,  and  he  was  going  to 
use  his  journalistic  connection  to  make  interest  for  it. 
He  would  have  given  everything  but  honor  to  have  it 
known  that  he  had  written  some  things  for  Harper's 
and  the  Century ;  he  did  not  wish,  or  he  said  to  him 
self  and  stood  to  it  that  he  did  not  wish,  any  favor 
shown  his  novel  because  he  had  written  those  things. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  willing  the  fact  that  he  was 
the  correspondent  of  the  Midland  Echo  should  help 
him  to  a  prompt  examination  of  his  manuscript  if  it 
could  ;  and  he  meant  to  let  it  be  known  that  he  was  a 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  31 

journalist  before  he  let  it  be  known  that  he  was  an 
author. 

He  formulated  some  phrases  introducing  himself  in 
his  newspaper  character,  as  he  walked  up  Broadway 
with  his  manuscript  held  tight  under  his  arm,  and  with 
that  lifting  and  glowing  of  the  heart  which  a  young 
man  cannot  help  feeling  if  he  walks  up  Broadway  on 
a  bright  October  morning.  The  sun  was  gay  on  the 
senseless  facades  of  the  edifices,  littered  with  signs  of 
the  traffic  within,  and  hung  with  effigies  and  emblems 
of  every  conceit  and  color,  from  the  cornice  to  the 
threshold,  where  the  show-cases  crowded  the  passen 
gers  toward  the  curbstones,  and  to  the  cellarways  that 
overflowed  the  sidewalks  with  their  wares.  The  fran 
tic  struggle  and  jumble  of  these  appeals  to  curiosity 
and  interest  jarred  themselves  to  an  effect  of  kaleido 
scopic  harmony,  just  as  the  multitudinous  noises  of  the 
hoofs  and  wheels  arid  feet  and  tongues  broke  and 
bruised  themselves  to  one  roar  on  the  ear ;  and  the  ad 
venturer  among  them  found  no  offence  in  their  confu 
sion.  He  had  his  stake,  too,  in  the  tremendous  game 
that  all  were  playing,  some  fair  and  some  foul,  and 
shrieking  out  their  bets  in  these  strident  notes ;  and 
he  believed  so  much  he  should  win  that  he  was  ready 
to  take  the  chances  of  losing.  From  the  stainless  blue 
sky  overhead  the  morning  sun  glared  down  on  the 
thronged  and  noisy  street,  and  brought  out  all  its  de 
tails  with  keen  distinctness  ;  but  Ray  did  not  feel  its 
anarchy.  The  irregularity  of  the  buildings,  high  and 
low,  as  if  they  were  parts  of  a  wall  wantonly,  hacked 


32  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

and  notched,  here  more  and  here  less,  was  of  the  same 
moral  effect  to  him  as  the  beautiful  spire  of  Grace 
Church  thrilling  heavenward  like  a  hymn. 

He  went  along,  wondering  if  he  should  happen  to 
meet  either  of  those  young  women  whom  he  had  be 
friended  the  evening  before.  He  had  heard  that  you 
were  sure  to  meet  somebody  you  knew  whenever  you 
stepped  out  on  Broadway,  and  he  figured  meeting  them, 
in  fancy.  He  had  decided  to  put  them  into  his  story 
of  New  York  life,  and  he  tried  to  imagine  the  char 
acter  he  should  assign  them,  or  rather  one  of  them ; 
the  one  who  had  given  the  old  darkey  a  quarter  out  of 
his  dollar.  He  did  not  quite  know  what  to  do  with 
the  child ;  something  could  be  made  of  the  child  if  it 
were  older,  but  a  mere  baby  like  that  would  be  difficult 
to  manage  in  such  a  story  as  Ray  meant  to  write.  He 
wondered  if  it  would  do  to  have  her  deserted  by  her 
husband,  and  have  the  hero,  a  young  literary  ad 
venturer,  not  at  all  like  himself,  fall  in  love  with  her, 
and  then  have  them  both  die  when  the  husband,  a 
worthless,  drunken  brute,  came  back  in  time  to  pre 
vent  their  marriage.  Such  a  scheme  would  give  scope 
for  great  suffering ;  Ray  imagined  a  scene  of  renunci 
ation  between  the  lovers,  who  refused  each  other  even 
a  last  kiss  ;  and  he  felt  a  lump  rise  in  his  throat.  It 
could  be  made  very  powerful. 

He  evolved  a  character  of  reckless  generosity  for 
her  from  her  beneficence  to  the  old  negro  in  the  ferry 
boat.  Under  that  still,  almost  cold  exterior,  he  made 
her  conceal  a  nature  of  passionate  impulse,  because 


THE    AVOKLD    OF    CHANCE.  33 

the  story  required  a  nature  of  that  sort.  He  did  not 
know  whether  to  have  the  husband  finally  die,  and  the 
lovers  marry,  or  whether  to  have  the  lovers  killed  in 
an  accident.  It  would  be  more  powerful  to  have  them 
killed ;  it  would  be  so  conventional  and  expected  to 
have  them  happily  married ;  but  he  knew  the  reader 
liked  a  novel  that  ended  well.  It  would  be  at  once 
powerful  and  popular  to  have  them  elope  together. 
Perhaps  the  best  thing  he  could  do  would  be  to  have 
them  elope ;  there  was  a  fascination  in  the  guilty 
thought ;  he  could  make  such  a  denoument  very  at 
tractive  ;  but  upon  the  whole  he  felt  that  he  must  not, 
for  very  much  the  same  reason  that  he  must  not  him 
self  run  off  with  his  neighbor's  wife. 

All  the  time  that  this  went  on  in  his  mind,  Ray  was 
walking  up  Broadway,  and  holding  fast  to  the  novel 
under  his  arm,  which  the  novel  in  his  brain  was 
eclipsing.  His  inner  eye  was  fixed  on  the  remem 
bered  face  of  that  strange  girl,  or  woman,  whom  he 
was  fashioning  into  a  fictitious  heroine,  but  his  out 
ward  vision  roved  over  the  women  faces  it  en 
countered,  and  his  taste  made  its  swift  selection  among 
them,  and  his  ambidextrous  fancy  wove  romances 
around  such  as  he  found  pretty  or  interesting  enough 
to  give  his  heart  to.  They  were  mostly  the  silly  or 
sordid  faces  that  women  wear  when  they  are  shopping, 
and  they  expressed  such  emotions  as  are  roused  by  the 
chase  of  a  certain  shade  of  ribbon,  or  the  hope  of 
getting  something  rich  and  fashionable  for  less  than 
its  worth.  But  youth  is  not  nice,  or  else  its  eyes  are 


34  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

keener  than  those  of  after-life ;  and  Ray  found  many 
beautiful  and  stylish  girls  where  the  middle-aged  wit 
ness  would  have  seen  a  long  procession  of  average 
second-rate  young  women.  He  admired  their  New- 
Yorky  dash ;  he  saw  their  difference  in  look  and  car 
riage  from  the  Midland  girls  ;  and  he  wondered  what 
they  would  be  like,  if  he  knew  them.  He  reflected 
that  he  did  not  know  any  one  in  New  York ;  but  he 
expected  soon  to  be  acquainted.  If  he  got  his  novel 
taken  he  would  very  soon  be  known,  and  then  his 
acquaintance  would  be  sought.  He  saw  himself 
launched  upon  a  brilliant  social  career,  and  he  sud 
denly  had  a  difficulty  presented  to  him  which  he  had 
not  foreseen  a  moment  before  ;  he  had  to  choose  between 
a  brilliant  marriage  with  a  rich  and  well-born  girl  and 
fealty  to  the  weird  heroine  of  his  story.  The  unexpected 
contingency  suggested  a  new  ending  to  his  original 
story.  The  husband  could  die  and  the  lovers  be  about 
to  marry,  when  they  could  become  aware  that  the  rich 
girl  was  in  love  with  the  hero.  They  could  renounce 
each  other,  and  the  hero  could  marry  the  rich  girl ;  and 
shortly  after  the  heroine  could  die.  An  ending  like 
that  could  be  made  very  powerful ;  and  it  would  be 
popular,  too. 

Ray  found  himself  in  a  jam  of  people  who  had  be 
gun  suddenly  to  gather  at  the  corner  he  was  approach 
ing.  They  were  looking  across  at  something  on  the 
other  corner,  and  Ray  looked  too.  Trunks  and  trav 
elling-bags  had  overflowed  from  a  store  in  the  base 
ment  there,  and  piled  themselves  on  the  sidewalk  and 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  35 

up  the  house  wall ;  and  against  the  background  they 
formed  stood  two  figures.  One  was  a  decent-looking 
young  man  in  a  Derby  hat,  and  wearing  spectacles, 
which  gave  him  a  sort  of  scholarly  air ;  he  remained 
passive  in  the  grip  of  another,  probably  the  shopman, 
who  was  quite  colorless  with  excitement,  and  who 
clung  fast  to  the  shoulder  of  the  first,  as  if  his  prisoner 
were  making  violent  efforts  to  escape.  A  tall  young 
policeman  parted  the  crowd,  and  listened  a  moment  to 
the  complaint  the  shopman  made,  with  many  gestures 
toward  his  wares.  Then  he  turned  to  the  passive  cap- 
tive,  and  Rav  heard  the  click  of  the  handcuffs  as  they 
snapped  on  the  wrists  of  this  scholarly-looking  man ; 
and  the  policeman  took  him  by  the  arm  and  led  him 
away. 

The  intrusion  of  such  a  brutal  fact  of  life  into  the 
tragic  atmosphere  of  his  revery  made  the  young  poet 
a  little  sick,  but  the  young  journalist  avidly  seized 
upon  it.  The  poet  would  not  have  dreamed  of  using 
such  an  incident,  but  the  journalist  saw  how  well  it 
would  work  into  the  scheme  of  that  first  letter  he  was 
writing  home  to  the  Echo,  where  he  treated  of  the 
surface  contracts  of  life  in  .J^ew_York  as  they  present 
themselves  to  the  stranger.  A  glad  astonishment  at 
the  profusion  of  the  material  for  his  letters  possessed 
him ;  at  this  rate  he  should  have  no  trouble  in  writing 
them ;  he  could  make  them  an  indispensable  feature ; 
they  would  be  quoted  and  copied,  and  he  could  get  a 
rise'  out  of  Hanks  Brothers  on  the  price. 

He  crossed  to  the  next  corner,  where  the  shopman 


36  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

was  the  centre  of  a  lessening  number  of  spectators,  and 
found  him  willing  to  prolong  the  interest  he  had 
created  in  the  public  mind.  He  said  the  thief  had 
priced  a  number  of  bags  in  the  place  below,  and  on 
coming  up  had  made  a  grab  at  one  and  tried  to  get  off 
with  it ;  but  he  was  onto  him  like  lightning.  He 
showed  Ray  which  bag  it  was,  and  turned  it  round 
and  upside  down  as  if  with  a  fresh  sense  of  its  moral 
value.  He  said  he  should  have  to  take  that  bag  into 
court,  and  he  set  it  aside  so  that  he  should  not  forget  it. 

"  I  suppose,"  said  a  tall,  elderly  gentleman,  who 
seemed  to  have  been  listening  to  Ray's  dialogue  with 
the  shopman,  "you  wouldn't  be  willing  to  sell  me  that 
bag?"  He  spoke  slowly  with  a  thick,  mellow  voice, 
deep  in  his  throat. 

"  Money  wouldn't  buy  that  bag ;  no  sir,"  said  the 
shopman  ;  but  he  seemed  uneasy. 

"  You  know,"  urged  the  soft-voiced  stranger,  "  you 
could  show  some  other  bag  in  court  that  was  just  like 
it." 

"•  I  couldn't  swear  to  no  other  bag,"  said  the  shop 
man,  daunted,  and  visibly  relenting. 

"  That  is  true,"  said  the  stranger.  "  But  you  could 
swear  that  it  was  exactly  like  this.  Still,  I  dare  say 
you're  quite  right,  and  it's  better  to  produce  the  corpus 
delicti,  if  possible." 

He  glanced  at  Ray  with  a  whimsical  demand  for 
sympathy  ;  Ray  smiled,  and  they  walked  off  together, 
leaving  the  shopman  in  dubious  study  of  his  eventful 
bag.  He  was  opening  it,  and  scrutinizing  the  inside. 


VII. 

THE  stranger  skipped  into  step  with  Ray  more 
lightly  than  would  have  been  expected  from  one  of  his 
years.  He  wore  a  soft  felt  hat  over  locks  of  silken 
silver  that  were  long  enough  to  touch  his  beautiful 
white  beard.  He  wore  it  with  an  effect  of  intention, 
as  if  he  knew  it  was  out  of  character  with  the  city, 
but  was  so  much  in  character  with  himself  that  the 
city  must  be  left  to  reconcile  itself  to  the  incongruity 
or  not,  as  it  chose.  For  the  same  reason,  apparently, 
his  well-fitting  frock-coat  was  of  broadcloth,  instead  of 
modern  diagonal ;  a  black  silk  handkerchief  tied  in  an 
easy  knot  at  his  throat  strayed  from  under  his  beard, 
which  had  the  same  waviness  as  his  hair ;  he  had  black 
trousers,  and  drab  gaiters  showing  themselves  above 
wide,  low  shoes.  In  his  hands,  which  he  held  behind 
him,  he  dangled  a  stick  with  an  effect  of  leisure  and 
ease,  enhanced  somehow  by  the  stoop  he  made  tow 
ards  the  young  fellow's  lower  stature,  and  by  his  re 
fusal  to  lift  his  voice  above  a  certain  pitch,  whatever 
the  uproar  of  the  street  about  them.  Ray  screamed 
out  his  words,  but  the  stranger  spoke  in  what  seemed 
his  wonted  tone,  and  left  Ray  to  catch  the  words  as  he 
could. 

"I  didn't  think,"  he  said,  after  a  moment,  and  with 


38  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

some  misgiving,  that  this  stranger  who  had  got  into 
step  with  him  might  be  some  kind  of  confidence  man 
—  "  I  didn't  think  that  fellow  looked  like  a  thief  much." 

"  You  are  a  believer  in  physiognomy  ?  "  asked  the 
stranger,  with  a  philosophic  poise.  He  had  himself  a 
regular  face,  with  gay  eyes,  and  a  fine  pearly  tint ;  lips 
that  must  have  been  beautiful  shaped  his  branching 
mustache  to  a  whimsical  smile. 

"  No,"  said  Ray.  "  I  wasn't  near  enough  to  see  his 
face.  But  he  looked  so  decent  and  quiet,  and  he  be 
haved  with  so  much  dignity.  Perha~ps  it  was  his  spec 
tacles." 

"  Glasses  can  do  much,"  said  the  stranger,  "  to  re 
deem  the  human  countenance,  even  when  worn  as  a 
protest  against  the  presence  of  one's  portrait  in  the 
rogues'  gallery  I  don't  say  you're  wrong ;  I'm  only 
afraid  the  chances  are  that  you'll  never  be  proved 
right.  I  should  prefer  to  make  a  speculative  approach 
to  the  facts  on  another  plane.  As  you  suggest,  he  had 
a  sage  and  dignified  appearance  ;  I  observed  it  myself  ; 
he  had  the  effect  —  how  shall  I  express  it  ?  —  of  some 
sort  of  studious  rustic.  Say  he  was  a  belated  farm 
youth,  working  his  wa'y  through  a  fresh-water  college, 
who  had  great  latent  gifts  of  peculation,  such  as  might 
have  won  him  a  wide  newspaper  celebrity  as  a  de 
faulter  later  in  life,  and  under  more  favorable  condi 
tions.  He  finds  himself  alone  in  a  great  city  for  the 
first  time,  and  is  attracted  by  the  display  of  the  trunk- 
dealer's  cellarway.  The  opportunity  seems  favorable 
to  the  acquisition  of  a  neat  travelling-bag ;  perhaps  he 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  39 

has  never  owned  one,  or  he  wishes  to  present  it  to  the 

object  of  his  affections,  or  to  a  sick  mother ;  he  may 

have  had  any  respectable  motive  •  but  his  outlook  has 

Ybeen  so  restricted  that  he  cannot  realize  the  difference 

I  between  stealing  a  travelling-bag  and  stealing,  say,  a 
street;  though  I  believe  Mr.  Sharp  only  bought  Broad 
way  of  those  who  did  not  own  it,  and  who  sold  it  low ; 

'tmt  never  mind,  it  may  stand  for  an  illustration.  If 
this  young  man  had  stolen  a  street,  he  would  not  have 
been  arrested  and  handcuffed  in  that  disgraceful  way 
and  led  off  to  the  dungeon-keep  of  the  Jefferson  Mar- 
kat  Police  Court  —  I  presume  that  is  the  nearest  prison, 
though  I  won't  be  quite  positive  —  but  he  would  have 

i  had  to  be  attacked  and  exposed  a  long  time  in   the 

;  newspapers  ;  and  he  would  have  had  counsel,  and  the 
case  would  have  been  fought  from  one  tribunal  to 
another,  till  at  last  he  wouldn't  have  known  whether 
he  was  a  common  criminal  or  a  public  benefactor. 
The  difficulty  in  his  case  is  simply  an  inadequate  out- 

llook." 

The  philosophic  stranger  lifted  his  face  and  gazed 
round  over  Ray's  head,  but  he  came  to  a  halt  at  the 
same  time  with  the  young  fellow.  "  Well,  sir,"  he 
said,  with  bland  ceremony,  "  I  must  bid  you  good- 
morning.  As  we  go  our  several  ways  let  us  remember 
the  day's  lesson,  and  when  we  steal,  always  steal 
enough." 

He  held  out  his  hand,  and  Ray  took  it  with  a  pleas 
ure  in  his  discourse  which  he  was  wondering  how  he 
should  express  to  him.  He  felt  it  due  himself  to 


40  THE    AVORLD    OF    CHANCE 

say  something  clever  in  return,  but  he  could  not  think 
of  anything.  "  I'm  sure  I  shall  remember  your  inter 
pretation  of  it,"  was  all  he  could  get  out. 

"Ah,  well,  don't  act  upon  that  without  due  reflec 
tion,"  the  stranger  said  ;  and  he  gave  Ray's  hand  a 
final  and  impressive  downward  shake.  "  Dear  me  !  " 
he  added,  for  Ray  made  no  sign  of  going  on.  "  Are 
we  both  stopping  here  —  two  spiders  at  the  parlor  of 
the  same  unsuspecting  fly?  But  perhaps  you  are 
merely  a  buyer,  not  a  writer,  of  books  ?  After  you, 
sir ! " 

The  stranger  promoted  a  little  polite  rivalry  that 
ensued  between  them  ;  he  ended  it  by  passing  one  hand 
through  the  young  man's  arm,  and  with  the  other 
pressing  open  the  door  which  they  had  both  halted  at, 
and  which  bore  on  either  jamb  a  rounded  metallic  plate 
with  the  sign,  "II.  C.  Chapley  &  Co.,  Publishers." 
Within,  he  released  Ray  with  a  courteous  bow,  as  if 
willing  to  leave  him  now  to  his  own  devices.  He  went 
off  to  a  distant  counter  in  the  wide,  low  room,  and 
occupied  himself  with  the  books  on  it ;  Ray  advanced 
and  spoke  to  a  clerk,  who  met  him  half-way.  He 
asked  for  Mr.  Chapley,  and  the  clerk  said  he  was  not 
down  yet  —  he  seldom  got  down  so  early;  but  Mr. 
Brandreth  would  be  in  almost  any  minute  now.  When 
Ray  said  he  had  a  letter  for  the  firm,  and  would  wait 
if  the  clerk  pleased,  the  clerk  asked  if  he  would  not 
take  a  chair  in  Mr.  Brandreth's  room. 

Ray  could  not  help  thinking  the  civility  shown  him 
was  for  an  imaginable  customer  rather  than  a  concealed 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  41 

author,  but  he  accepted  it  all  the  same,  and  sat  looking 
out  into  the  salesroom,  with  its  counters  of  books,  and 
its  shelves  full  of  them  around  its  walls,  while  he 
waited.  Chapley  &  Co.  were  of  the  few  old-fashioned 
publishers  who  had  remained  booksellers  too,  in  a  day 
when  most  publishers  have  ceased  to  be  so.  They 
were  jobbers  as  well  as  booksellers ;  they  took  orders 
and  made  terms  for  public  and  private  libraries  ;  they 
had  customers  all  over  the  country  who  depended  on 
them  for  advice  and  suggestion  about  forth-coming 
books,  and  there  were  many  booksellers  in  the  smaller 
cities  who  bought  through  them.  The  bookseller  in 
Midland,  who  united  bookselling  with  a  stationery  and 
music  business,  was  one  of  these,  and  he  had  offered 
Ray  a  letter  to  them. 

"  If  you  ever  want  to  get  a  book  published,"  he  said, 
with  a  touch  on  the  quick  that  made  the  conscious 
author  wince,  "  they're  your  men." 

Ray  knew  their  imprint  and  its  relative  value  better 
than  the  Midland  bookseller,  stationer,  and  music- 
dealer  ;  and  now,  as  he  sat  in  the  junior  partner's  neat 
little  den,  with  the  letter  of  introduction  in  his  hand, 
it  seemed  to  him  such  a  crazy  thing  to  think  of  having 
his  book  brought  out  by  them  that  he  decided  not  to 
say  anything  about  it,  but  to  keep  to  that  character  of 
literary  newspaper  man  which  his  friend  gave  him  in 
his  rather  florid  letter.  He  had  leisure  enough  to 
make  this  decision  and  unmake  it  several  times  while 
he  was  waiting  for  Mr.  Brandreth  to  come.  It  was  so 
early  that,  with  all  the  delays  Ray  had  forced,  it  was 


42  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

still  only  a  little  after  nine,  and  no  one  came  in  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour.  The  clerks  stood  about  and  chatted 
together.  The  bookkeepers,  in  their  high-railed  en 
closure,  were  opening  their  ledgers  under  the  shaded 
gas-burners  that  helped  out  the  twilight  there.  Ray 
could  see  his  unknown  street  friend  scanning  the  books 
on  the  upper  shelf  and  moving  his  person  from  side  to 
side,  and  letting  his  cane  rise  and  fall  behind  him  as 
if  he  were  humming  to  himself  and  keeping  time  to  the 
tune. 


VIII. 

THE  distant  street  door  opened  at  last,  and  a  gen 
tleman  came  in.  His  entrance  caused  an  indefinite 
sensation  in  the  clerks,  such  as  we  all  feel  in  the  pres 
ence  of  the  man  who  pays  our  wages.  At  the  sound 
of  his  step,  Ray's  street  friend  turned  about  from  his 
shelf,  but  without  offering  to  leave  it. 

"  Ah,  good-morning,  good-morning  !  "  he  called  out ; 
and  the  other  called  back,  "Ah,  good-morning,  Mr. 
Kane !  "  and  pushed  on  up  towards  a  door  near  that 
of  Ray's  retreat.  A  clerk  stopped  him,  and  after  a 
moment's  parley  he  came  in  upon  the  young  fellow. 
He  was  a  man  of  fifty-five  or  sixty,  with  whiskers 
slightly  frosted,  and  some  puckers  and  wrinkles  about 
his  temples  and  at  the  corners  of  his  mouth,  and  a  sort 
of  withered  bloom  in  his  cheeks,  something  like  the 
hardy  self-preservation  of  the  late-hanging  apple  that 
people  call  a  frozen-thaw.  He  was  a  thin  man,  who 
seemed  once  to  have  been  stouter ;  he  had  a  gentle 
presence  and  a  somewhat  careworn  look. 

"  Mr.  Brandreth  ?  "  Ray  said,  rising. 

"  No,"  said  the  other  ;  "  Mr.  Chapley." 

"  Oh,  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Ray.  "  They 
showed  me  into  Mr.  Brandreth's  room,  and  I 
thought " — 


44  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"It's  quite  right,  quite  right,"  said  Mr.  Chapley. 
"  Mr.  Brandreth  will  be  in  almost  any  moment  if  you 
wish  to  see  him  personally."  Mr.  Chapley  glanced  at 
the  parcel  in  Ray's  hand. 

"  Oh  no ;  I  have  a  letter  for  the  firm,"  and  Ray 
gave  it  to  Mr.  Chapley,  who  read  it  through  and  then 
offered  his  hand,  and  said  he  was  glad  to  meet  Mr. 
Ray.  He  asked  some  questions  of  commonplace 
friendliness  about  his  correspondent,  and  he  said,  with 
the  kind  of  melancholy  which  seemed  characteristic  of 
him :  "  So  you  have  come  to  take  a  hand  in  the  great 
game  here.  Well,  if  there  is  anything  I  can  do  to 
serve  you,  1  shall  be  very  glad." 

Ray  answered  promptly,  in  pursuance  of  his  plan: 
"You  are  very  kind,  Mr.  Chapley.  I'm  going  to 
write  letters  to  the  paper  I've  been  connected  with  in 
Midland,  and  I  wish  to  give  them  largely  a  literary 
character.  I  shall  be  obliged  to  you  for  any  literary 
news  you  have." 

Mr.  Chapley  seemed  relieved  of  a  latent  dread.  A 
little  knot  of  anxiety  between  his  eyes  came  untied ; 
he  did  not  yet  go  to  the  length  of  laying  off  his  light 
overcoat,  but  he  set  his  hat  down  on  Mr.  Brandreth's 
desk,  and  he  loosed  the  grip  he  had  kept  of  his  cane. 

"Why,  Mr.  Brandreth  rather  looks  after  that  side 
of  the  business.  He's  more  in  touch  with  the  younger 
men  —  with  what's  going  on,  in  fact,  than  I  am.  He 
can  tell  you  all  there  is  about  our  own  small  affairs, 
and  put  you  in  relations  with  other  publishers,  if  you 
wish." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  45 

"  Thank  you  —  "  Ray  began. 

"  Not  at  all ;  it  will  be  to  our  advantage,  I'm  sure. 
We  should  be  glad  to  do  much  more  for  any  friend  of 
our  old  friends"  —  Mr.  Chapley  had  to  refer  to  the 
letter-head  of  the  introduction  before  he  could  make 
sure  of  his  old  friends'  style  —  "  Schmucker  &  Wills. 
I  hope  they  are  prospering  in  these  uncertain  times  ?  " 

Ray  said  they  were  doing  very  well,  he  believed, 
and  Mr.  Chapley  went  on. 

\        "  So  many  of  the  local  booksellers  are  feeling  the 

competition  of  the  large  stores  which  have  begun  to 

|  deal  in  books  as  well  as  everything   else  under   the 

j  sun,  nowadays.      I  understand  they  have  completely 

''""disorganized   the  book  trade  in    some   of   our  minor 

cities ;    completely !     They  take  hold  of  a  book  like 

Robert  Elsmere,  for  instance,  as  if  it  were  a  piece  of 

silk  that  they  control  the  pattern  of,  and  run  it  at  a 

price  that   is  simply  ruinous ;    besides  doing  a  large 

miscellaneous  business  in  books  at  rates  that  defy  all 

competition  on  the  part  of  the  regular  dealers.     But 

perhaps  you  haven't  suffered  from  these  commercial 

monstrosities  yet  in  Midland  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Ray ;  "  We  have  our  local  Stewart's 
or  Macy's,  whichever  it  is ;  and  I  imagine  Schmucker 
&  Wills  feel  it,  especially  at  the  holidays."  He  had 
never  had  to  buy  any  books  himself,  because  he  got 
the  copies  sent  to  the  Echo  for  review ;  and  now,  in 
deference  to  Mr.  Chapley,  he  was  glad  that  he  had 
not  shared  in  the  demoralization  of  the  book  trade. 
"  But  I  think,"  he  added,  cheerfully,  "  that  they  are 
holding  their  own  very  well." 


46  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  it,  very  glad,  indeed,"  said 
Mr.  Chapley.  "  If  we  can  only  get  this  international 
copyright  measure  through  and  dam  up  the  disorganiz 
ing  tide  of  cheap  publications  at  its  source,  we  may 
hope  to  restore  the  tone  of  the  trade.  As  it  is,  we  are 
ourselves  constantly  restricting  our  enterprise  as  pub 
lishers.  We  scarcely  think  now  of  looking  at  the 
manuscript  of  an  unknown  author." 

Mr.  Chapley  looked  at  the  manuscript  of  the  un 
known  author  before  him,  as  if  he  divined  it  through 
its  wrappings  of  stiff  manilla  paper.  Ray  had  no 
reason  to  think  that  he  meant  to  prevent  a  possible 
offer  of  manuscript,  but  he  could  not  help  thinking  so, 
and  it  cut  him  short  in  the  inquiries  he  was  going  to 
make  as  to  the  extent  of  the  demoralization  the  book 
trade  had  suffered  through  the  competition  of  the  large 
variety  stores.  He  had  seen  a  whole  letter  for  the 
Echo  in  the  subject,  but  now  he  could  not  go  on.  He 
sat  blankly  staring  at  Mr.  Chapley's  friendly,  pensive 
face,  and  trying  to  decide  whether  he  had  better  get 
himself  away  without  seeing  Mr.  Brandreth,  or 
whether  he  had  better  stay  and  meet  him,  and  after  a 
cold,  formal  exchange  of  civilities,  shake  the  dust  of 
Chapley  &  Co.'s  publishing  house  from  his  feet  for 
ever.  The  distant  street  door  opened  again,  and  a 
small  light  figure,  much  like  his  own,  entered  briskly. 
Mr.  Kane  turned  about  at  the  new-comer's  step  as  he 
had  turned  at  Mr.  Chapley's,  and  sent  his  cheerful 
hail  across  the  book  counters  as  before.  "  Ah,  good- 
morning,  good-morning !  " 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  47 

"  Good-morning,  Mr.  Kane ;  magnificent  day,"  said 
the  gentleman,  who  advanced  rapidly  towards  Ray  and 
Mr.  Chapley,  with  a  lustrous  silk  hat  on  his  head,  and 
a  brilliant  smile  on  his  face.  His  overcoat  hung  on 
his  arm,  and  he  looked  fresh  and  warm  as  if  from  a 
long  walk.  "Ah,  good-morning,"  he  said  to  Mr. 
Chapley ;  "  how  are  you  this  morning,  sir  ? "  He 
bent  hie  head  inquiringly  towards  Ray,  who  stood  a 
moment  while  Mr.  Chapley  got  himself  together  and 
said: 

"  This  is  Mr.  —  ah  —  Ray,  who  brings  a  letter  from 
our  old  friends  "  —  he  had  to  glance  at  the  letter-head 
—  "Schmucker  &  Wills,  of  —  Midland." 

"Ah!  Midland!  yes,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  for  Ray 
felt  it  was  he,  although  his  name  had  not  been  men 
tioned  yet.  "  Very  glad  to  see  you,  Mr.  Ray.  When 
did  you  leave  Midland  ?  Won't  you  sit  down  ?  And 
you,  Mr.  Chapley  ?  " 

"  No,  no,"  said  Mr.  Chapley,  nervously.  "  I  was 
going  to  my  own  room.  How  is  poor  Bella  this 
morning  ?  " 

"  Wonderfully  well,  wonderfully  !  I  waited  for  the 
doctor's  visit  before  I  left  home,  so  as  to  report  re 
liably,  and  he  says  he  never  saw  a  better  convales 
cence.  He  promises  to  let  her  go  out  in  a  fortnight  or 
so,  if  the  weather's  good." 

"  You  must  be  careful !  Don't  go  too  fast !  "  said 
Mr.  Chapley.  And  the  —  child  ?  " 

"  Perfectly   splendid !      He   slept   like   a    top   last 
night,  and  we  could  hardly  get  him  awake  for  break 
fast." 
4 


48  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Poor  thing !  "  said  Mr.  Chapley.  He  offered  Ray 
his  hand,  and  said  that  he  hoped  they  should  see 
him  often  ;  he  must  drop  in  whenever  he  was  passing. 
"  Mr.  Ray,"  he  explained,  "  has  come  on  to  take  up 
his  residence  in  New  York.  He  remains  connected 
with  one  of  the  papers  in  —  Midland ;  and  I  have 
been  referring  him  to  you  for  literary  gossip,  and  that 
kind  of  thing." 

"  All  right,  sir,  all  right ! "  said  Mr.  Brandreth. 
He  laughed  out  after  Mr.  Chapley  had  left  them,  and 
then  said :  "  Excuse  me,  Mr.  Ray.  You  mustn't 
mind  my  smiling  rather  irrelevantly.  We've  had  a 
great  event  at  my  house  this  week  —  in  fact,  we've 
had  a  boy." 

"  Indeed  !  "  said  Ray.  He  had  the  sort  of  contempt 
a  young  man  feels  for  such  domestic  events ;  but  he 
easily  concealed  it  from  the  happy  father,  who  looked 
scarcely  older  than  himself. 

"  An  eight-pounder,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "  I  have 
been  pretty  anxious  for  the  last  few  weeks,  and  —  I 
don't  know  whether  you  married  or  not,  Mr.  Ray  ?  " 

«  No." 

"Well,  then  you  wouldn't  understand."  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  arrested  himself  reluctantly,  Ray  thought,  in  his 
confidences.  "  But  you  will,  some  day ;  you  will,  some 
day,"  he  added,  gayly ;  "  and  then  you'll  know  what 
it  is  to  have  an  experience  like  that  go  off  well.  It 
throws  a  new  light  on  everything."  A  clerk  came  in 
with  a  pile  of  opened  letters  and  put  them  on  Mr. 
Brandreth's  desk,  with  some  which  were  still  sealed ; 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  49 

Ray  rose  again.  "  Xo,  don't  go.  But  you  won't 
mind  my  glancing  these  over  while  we  talk.  I  don't 
know  how  much  talk  you've  been  having  with  Mr. 
Chapley  —  he's  my  father-in-law,  you  know  ?  " 

Ray  owned  that  he  did  not. 

"  Yes ;  I  came  into  the  firm  and  into  the  family  a 
a  little  over  a  year  ago.  But  if  there  are  any  points  I 
can  give  you,  I'm  quite  at  your  service." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Ray.  "Mr.  Chapley  was 
speaking  of  the  effect  of  the  competition  of  the  big 
variety  stores  on  the  regular  booksellers." 

Mr.  Brandreth  slitted  the  envelope  of  one  of  the 
letters  with  a  slim  paper-knife,  and  glanced  the  letter 
over.  "  Well,  that's  a  little  matter  I  differ  with  Mr. 
Chapley  about.  Of  course,  I  know  just  how  he  feels, 
brought  up  the  way  he  was,  in  the  old  traditions  of 
the  trade.  It  seems  to  him  we  must  be  going  to  the 
bad  because  our  books  are  sold  over  a  counter  next  to 
a  tin-ware  counter,  or  a  perfume  and  essence  counter, 
or  a  bric-a-brac  counter.  I  don't  think  so.  I  think 
the  great  thing  is  to  sell  the  books,  and  I  wish  we 
could  get  a  book  into  the  hands  of  one  of  those  big 
dealers ;  I  should  be  glad  of  the  chance.  We  should 
have  to  make  him  a  heavy  discount ;  but  look  at  the 
discounts  we  have  to  make  to  the  trade,  now !  Forty 
per  cent.,  and  ten  cents  off  for  cash ;  so  that  a  dollar 
and  a  half  book,  that  it  costs  twenty-five  cents  or 
thirty  cents  to  make,  brings  you  in  about  seventy 
cents.  Then,  when  you  pay  the  author  his  ten  per 
cent,  copyright,  how  far  will  the  balance  go  towards 


50  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

advertising,  rent,  clerk  hire  and  sundries  ?  If  you 
want  to  get  a  book  into  the  news  companies,  you  have 
got  to  make  them  a  discount  of  sixty  per  cent,  out  of 
hand." 

"  Is  it  possible  ?  "  asked  Ray.  "  I'd  no  idea  it  was 
anything  like  that !  " 

"  No ;  people  haven't.  They  think  publishers  are 
rolling  in  riches  at  the  expense  of  the  author  and  the 
reader.  And  some  publishers  themselves  believe  that 
if  we  could  only  keep  up  the  old  system  of  letting  the 
regular  trade  have  the  lion's  share  on  long  credit,  their 
prosperity  would  be  assured.  I  don't,  myself.  If  we 
could  get  hold  of  a  good,  breezy,  taking  story,  I'd  like 
to  try  my  chance  with  it  in  the  hands  of  some  large 
dry-goods  man." 

Ray's  heart  thrilled.  His  own  story  had  often 
seemed  to  him  good  and  taking;  whether  it  was 
breezy  or  not,  he  had  never  thought.  He  wished  he 
knew  just  what  Mr.  Brandreth  meant  by  breezy ;  but 
he  did  not  like  to  ask  him.  His  hand  twitched  nerve 
lessly  on  the  manuscript  in  his  lap,  and  he  said, 
timidly :  "  Would  it  be  out  of  the  way  for  me  to  refer 
to  some  of  these  facts  —  they're  not  generally  known 
—  in  my  letters  ?  Of  course  not  using  your  name." 

"  Not  at  all !  I  should  be  very  glad  to  have  them 
understood,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth. 

"And  what  do  you  think  is  the  outlook  for  the 
winter  trade,  Mr.  Brandreth  ?  " 

"  Never  better.  I  think  we're  going  to  have  a  good 
trade.  We've  got  a  larger  list  than  we've  had  for  a 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  51 

great  many  years.  The  fact  is,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth, 
and  he  gave  a  glance  at  Ray,  as  if  he  felt  the  trust  the 
youthful  gravity  of  his  face  inspired  in  most  people  — 
"  the  fact  is,  Chapley  &  Co.  have  been  dropping  too 
much  out  of  sight,  as  publishers  ;  and  I've  felt,  ever 
since  I've  been  in  the  firm,  that  we  ought  to  give  the 
public  a  sharp  reminder  that  we're  not  merely  book 
sellers  and  jobbers.  I  want  the  house  to  take  its  old 
place  again.  I  don't  mean  it's  ever  really  lost  caste, 
or  that  its  imprint  doesn't  stand  for  as  much  as  it  did 
twenty  years  ago.  I'll  just  show  you  our  list  if  you 
can  wait  a  moment."  Mr.  Brandreth  closed  a  pair  of 
wooden  mandibles  lying  on  his  desk ;  an  electric  bell 
sounded  in  the  distance,  and  a  boy  appeared.  "  You 
go  and  ask  Miss  Hughes  if  she's  got  that  list  of  an 
nouncements  ready  yet."  The  boy  went,  and  Mr. 
Brandreth  took  up  one  of  the  cards  of  the  firm.  "  If 
you  would  like  to  visit  some  of  the  other  houses,  Mr. 
Ray,  I'll  give  you  our  card,"  and  he  wrote  on  the  card, 
"Introducing  Mr.  Ray,  of  the  Midland  Echo.  P. 
Brandreth,"  and  handed  it  to  him.  "  Not  Peter,  but 
Percy,"  he  said,  with  a  friendly  smile  for  his  own 
pleasantry.  "  But  for  business  purposes  it's  better  to 
let  them  suppose  it's  Peter." 

Ray  laughed,  and  said  he  imagined  so.  He  said  he 
had  always  felt  it  a  disadvantage  to  have  been  named 
Shelley  ;  but  he  could  not  write  himself  P.  B.  S.  Ray, 
and  he  usually  signed  simply  S.  Ray. 

"  Why,  then,  we  really  have  the  same  first  name," 
said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "It's  rather  an  uncommon 


52  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

name,  too.  I'm  very  glad  to  share  it  with  you,  Mr. 
Ray."  It  seemed  to  add  another  tie  to  those  that 
already  bound  them  in  the  sympathy  of  youth,  and 
the  publisher  said,  "  I  wish  I  could  ask  you  up  to  my 
house ;  but  just  now,  you  know,  it's  really  a  nursery." 

"You  are  very  kind,"  said  Ray.  " I  couldn't  think 
of  intruding  on  you,  of  course." 

Their  exchange  of  civilities  was  checked  by  the  re 
turn  of  the  boy,  who  said  Miss  Hughes  would  have  the 
list  ready  in  a  few  minutes. 

"  Well,  just  ask  her  to  bring  it  here,  will  you  ?  " 
Said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "  I  want  to  speak  to  her  about 
some  of  these  letters." 

"  I'm  taking  a  great  deal  of  your  time,  Mr.  Bran 
dreth,"  Ray  said. 

"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all.  I'm  making  a  kind  of 
holiday  week  of  it,  anyway.  I'm  a  good  deal  excited," 
and  Mr.  Brandreth  smiled  so  benevolently  that  Ray 
could  not  help  taking  advantage  of  him. 

The  purpose  possessed  him  almost  before  he  was 
aware  of  its  activity ;  he  thought  he  had  quelled  it, 
but  now  he  heard  himself  saying  in  a  stiff  unnatural 
voice,  "I  have  a  novel  of  my  own,  Mr  Brandreth, 
that  I  should  like  to  submit  to  you." 


IX. 

"  OH,  indeed !  "  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  with  a  change 
in  his  voice,  too,  which  Ray  might  well  have  inter 
preted  as  a  tone  of  disappointment  and  injury.  "  Just 
at  present,  Mr.  Ray,  trade  is  rather  quiet,  you  know." 

"  Yes,  I  know,"  said  Ray,  though  he  thought  he  had 
been  told  the  contrary.  He  felt  very  mean  and  guilty  ; 
the  blood  went  to  his  head,  and  his  face  burned.  fa 

"  Our  list  for  the  fall  trade  is  full,  as  I  was  saying, 
and    we    couldn't    really    touch    anything    till   next     f^*' 
spring." 

"Oh,  I  didn't  suppose  it  would  be  in  time  for  the  1' 

fall  trade,"  said  Ray,  arid  in  the  sudden  loss  of   the   -^ 
easy  terms  which  he  had  been  on  with  the  publisher, 
he  could  not  urge  anvthing  further. 

Mr.  Brandreth  must  have  felt  their  estrangement 
too,  for  he  said,  apologetically :  "  Of  course  it's  our 
business  to  examine  manuscripts  for  publication,  and  I 
hope  it's  going  to  be  our  business  to  publish  more  and 
more  of  them,  but  an  American  novel  by  an  unknown 
author,  as  long  as  we  have  the  competition  of  these  pi 
rated  "English  novels  —  If  we  can  only~get  the  copy- 
ngfft  bill  through,  we  shall  be  all  right." 

Ray  said  nothing  aloud,  for  he  was  busy  reproaching 
himself  under  his  breath  for  abusing  Mr.  Brandreth's 
hospitality.  . 


54  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"What  is  the  —  character  of  your  novel?"  asked 
Mr.  Brandreth,  to  break  the  painful  silence,  apparently, 
rather  than  to  inform  himself. 

"  The  usual  character,"  Ray  answered,  with  a  list- 
lessness  which  perhaps  passed  for  careless  confidence 
with  the  young  publisher,  and  piqued  his  interest. 
"  It's  a  love-story." 

"  Of  course.  Does  it  end  well  ?  A  great  deal  de 
pends  upon  the  ending  with  the  public,  you  know." 

"  I  suppose  it  ends  badly.  It  ends  as  badly  as  it 
can,'*  said  the  author,  feeling  that  he  had  taken  the  bit 
in  his  teeth.  "  It's  unrelieved  tragedy." 

"  That  isn't  so  bad,  sometimes,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth. 
"  That  is,  if  the  tragedy  is  intense  enough.  Sometimes 
a  thing  of  that  kind  takes  with  the  public,  if  the  love 
part  is  good  and  strong.  Have  you  the  manuscript 
here  in  New  York  with  you  ?  " 

"  I  have  it  here  in  my  lap  with  me,"  said  Ray,  with 
a  desperate  laugh. 

Mr.  Brandreth  cast  his  eye  over  the  package. 
"  What  do  you  call  it  ?  So  much  depends  upon  a  title 
with  the  public." 

"  I  had  thought  of  several  titles  :  the  hero's  name 
for  one ;  the  heroine's  for  another.  Then  I  didn't 
know  but  A  Modern  Romeo  would  do.  It's  very 
much  on  the  lines  of  the  play." 

"  Indeed ! "  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  with  a  sudden  in 
terest  that  flattered  Ray  with  fresh  hopes.  "  That's 
very  curious.  I  once  took  part  in  an  amateur  per 
formance  of  Romeo  myself.  We  gave  it  in  the  open 
air.  The  effect  was  very  novel." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  55 

"  I  should  think  it  might  be,"  said  Ray.  He  has 
tened  to  add,  "  My  story  deals,  of  course,  with 
American  life,  and  the  scene  is  laid  in  the  little  village 
where  I  grew  up." 

"  Our  play,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  "  was  in  a  little 
summer  place  in  Massachusetts.  One  of  the  ladies 
gave  us  her  tennis-ground,  and  we  made  our  exits  and 
our  entrances  through  the  surrounding  shrubbery. 
You've  no  idea  how  beautiful  the  mediaeval  dresses 
looked  in  the  electric  light.  It  was  at  night." 

"  It  must  have  been  beautiful,"  Ray  hastily  admitted. 
"  My  Juliet  is  the  daughter  of  the  village  doctor,  and 
my  Romeo  is  a  young  lawyer,  who  half  kills  a  cousin 
of  hers  for  trying  to  interfere  with  them." 

"  That's  good,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "  I  took  the 
part  of  Romeo  myself,  and  Mrs.  Brandreth  —  she  was 
Miss  Chapley,  then  —  was  cast  for  Juliet  ;  but  another 
girl  who  had  refused  the  part  suddenly  changed  her 
mind  and  claimed  it,  and  we  had  the  greatest  time 
to  keep  the  whole  affair  from  going  to  pieces.  I  beg 
your  pardon  ;  I  interrupted  you." 

"Not  at  all,"  said  Ray.  "It  must  have  been 
rather  difficult.  In  my  story  there  has  been  a  feud 
between  the  families  of  the  lovers  about  a  land  boun 
dary  ;  and  both  families  try  to  break  off  the  engage 
ment." 

"That's  very  odd,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "The 
play  nearly  broke  off  my  acquaintance  with  Mrs. 
Brandreth.  Of  course  she  was  vexed  —  as  anybody 
would  be  —  at  having  to  give  up  the  part  at  the 


56  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

eleventh  hour,  when  she'd  taken  so  much  trouble  with 
it ;  but  when  she  saw  my  suffering  with  the  other  girl, 
who  didn't  know  half  her  lines,  and  walked  through 
it  all  like  a  mechanical  doll,  she  forgave  me.  Romeo 
is  my  favorite  play.  Did  you  ever  see  Julia  Marlowe 
in  it?" 

"  No." 

"  Then  you  never  saw  Juliet !  I  used  to  think 
Margaret  Mather  was  about  the  loveliest  Juliet,  and 
in  fact  she  has  a  great  deal  of  passion  "  — 

"My  Juliet,"  Ray  broke  in,  "is  one  of  those  im 
passioned  natures.  When  she  finds  that  the  old  peo 
ple  are  inexorable,  she  jumps  at  the  suggestion  of  a 
secret  marriage,  and  the  lovers  run  off  and  are  mar 
ried,  and  come  back  and  live  separately.  They  meet 
at  a  picnic  soon  after,  where  Juliet  goes  with  her 
cousin,  who  makes  himself  offensive  to  the  husband, 
and  finally  insults  him.  They  happen  to  be  alone  to 
gether  near  the  high  bank  of  a  river,  and  the  husband, 
who  is  a  quiet  fellow  of  the  deadly  sort,  suddenly 
throws  the  cousin  over  the  cliff.  The  rest  are  danc- 
ing"- 

"  We  introduced  a  minuet  in  our  theatricals,"  Mr. 
Brandreth  interposed,  "  and  people  said  it  was  the  best 
thing  in  it.  I  beg  your  pardon  !  " 

"  Not  at  all.  It  must  have  been  very  picturesque. 
The  cousin  is  taken  up  for  dead,  and  the  husband  goes 
into  hiding  until  the  result  of  the  cousin's  injuries  can 
be  ascertained.  They  are  searching  for  the  husband 
everywhere,  and  the  girl's  father,  who  has  dabbled  in 


THE    WOULD    OF    CHANCE.  O/ 

hypnotism,  and  has  hypnotized  his  daughter  now  and 
then,  takes  the  notion  of  trying  to  discover  the  hus 
band's  whereabouts  by  throwing  her  into  a  hypnotic 
trance  and  questioning  her :  he  believes  that  she  knows. 
The  trance  is  incomplete,  and  with  what  is  left  of  her 
consciousness  the  girl  suffers  tremendously  from  the  con 
flict  that  takes  place  in  her.  In  the  midst  of  it  all,  word 
comes  from  the  room  where  the  cousin  is  lying  insensi 
ble  that  he  is  dying.  The  father  leaves  his  daughter 
to  go  to  him,  and  she  lapses  into  the  cataleptic  state. 
The  husband  has  been  lurking  about,  intending  to  give 
himself  up  if  it  comes  to  the  worst.  He  steals  up  to 
the  open  window  —  I  forgot  to  say  that  the  hypnotiza- 
tion  scene  takes  place  in  her  father's  office,  a  little 
building  that  stands  apart  from  the  house,  and  of 
course  it's  a  ground  floor  —  and  he  sees  her  stretched 
out  on  the  lounge,  all  pale  and  stiff,  and  he  thinks  she 
is  dead." 

Mr.  Brandreth  burst  into  a  laugh.  "  I  must  tell  you 
what  our  Mercutio  said  —  he  was  an  awfully  clever 
fellow,  a  lawyer  up  there,  one  of  the  natives,  and  he 
made  simply  a  perfect  Mercutio.  He  said  that  our 
Juliet  was  magnificent  in  the  sepulchre  scene ;  and  if 
she  could  have  played  the  part  as  a  dead  Juliet  through 
out,  she  would  have  beat  us  all !  " 

"  Capital !  "  said  Ray.     "  Ha,  ha,  ha !  " 

"  Well,  go  on,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth. 

"Oh!  Well,  the  husband  gets  in  at  the  window 
and  throws  himself  on  her  breast,  and  tries  to  revive 
her.  She  shows  no  signs  of  life,  though  all  the  time 


58  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

she  is  perfectly  aware  of  what  is  going  on,  and  is  strug 
gling  to  speak  and  reassure  him.  She  recovers  herself 
just  at  the  moment  he  draws  a  pistol  and  shoots  him 
self  through  the  heart.  The  shot  brings  the  father 
from  the  house,  and  as  he  enters  the  little  office,  his 
daughter  lifts  herself,  gives  him  one  ghastly  stare,  and 
falls  dead  on  her  husband's  body." 

"  That  is  strong,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth.     "  That  is  a 
very  powerful  scene." 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  "  Ray  asked.     He  looked  flushed 

and   flattered,   but   he   said  :    "  Sometimes    I've   been 

\ — -afraid  it  was    overwrought,   and  improbable  —  weak. 

\     It's  not,   properly  speaking,  a  novel,  you   see.      It's 

\   more  in  the  region  of  romance." 

~  "  Well,  so  much  the  better.  I  think  people  are  get 
ting  tired  of  those  commonplace,  photographic  tilings. 
They  want  something  with  a  little  more  imagination," 


JN^"  y<      said  Mr.  Brandreth. 

'TrThe  motive  of  my 


story  might  be  called  psycho 
logical,"  said  the  author.  "  Of  course  I've  only  given 
_you  the  crudest  outline  of  it,  that  doesn't  do  it  jus 
tice  "  — 

"  Well,  they  say  that  roman  psychologique  is  super 
seding  the  realistic  novel  in  France.  Will  you  allow 
me?" 

He  offered  to  take  the  manuscript,  and  Ray  eagerly 
undid  it,  and  placed  it  in  his  hands.  He  turned  over 
some  pages  of  it,  and  dipped  into  it  here  and  there. 

"  Yes,"  he  said.  "  Now  I'll  tell  you  what  we'll  do, 
Mr.  Ray.  You  leave  this  with  us,  and  we'll  have  our 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  59 

readers  go  over  it,  and  report  to  us,  and  then  we'll 
communicate  with  you  about  it.  What  did  you  say 
your  New  York  address  was  ?  " 

"  I  haven't  any  yet,"  said  Ray ;  but  I'll  call  and 
leave  it  as  soon  as  I've  got  one."  He  rose,  and  the 
young  publisher  said : 

"  Well,  drop  in  any  time.  We  shall  always  be  glad 
to  see  you.  Of  course  I  can't  promise  you  an  imme 
diate  decision." 

"  Oh,  no ;  I  don't  expect  that.  I  can  wait.  And 
I  can't  tell  you  how  much  —  how  much  I  appreciate 
your  kindness." 

"  Oh,  not  at  all.  Ah  !  "  The  boy  came  back  with 
a  type-written  sheet  in  his  hand ;  Mr.  Brandreth  took 
it  and  gave  it  to  Ray.  "  There  !  You  can  get  some 
idea  from  that  of  what  we're  going  to  do.  Take  it 
with  you.  It's  manifolded,  and  you  can  keep  this 
copy.  Drop  in  again  when  you're  passing." 

They  shook  hands,  but  they  did  not  part  there.  Mr. 
Brandreth  followed  Ray  out  into  the  store,  and  asked 
him  if  he  would  not  like  some  advance  copies  of  their 
new  books  ;  he  guessed  some  of  them  were  ready.  He 
directed  a  clerk  to  put  them  up,  and  then  he  said,  "  I'd 
like  to  introduce  you  to  one  of  our  authors.  Mr. 
Kane !  "  he  called  out  to  what  Ray  felt  to  be  the  gen 
tleman's  expectant  back,  and  Mr.  Kane  promptly 
turned  about  from  his  bookshelf  and  met  their  ad 
vance  half-way.  "I  want  to  make  you  acquainted 
with  Mr.  Ray." 

"  Fortune,"  said  Mr.  Kane,  with  evident  relish  of 


60  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

his  own  voice  and  diction,  "had  already  made  us 
friends,  in  the  common  interest  we  took  in  a  mistaken 
fellow-man  whom  we  saw  stealing  a  bag  to  travel  with 
instead  of  a  road  to  travel  on.  Before  you  came  in, 
we  were  street  intimates  of  five  minutes'  standing,  and 
we  entered  your  temple  of  the  Muses  together.  But 
I  am  very  glad  to  know  my  dear  friend  by  name." 
He  gave  Ray  the  pressure  of  a  soft,  cool  hand.  "  My 
name  is  doubtless  familiar  to  you,  Mr.  Ray.  We  spell 
it  a  little  differently  since  that  unfortunate  affair  wTith 
Abel ;  but  it  is  unquestionably  the  same  name,  and  we 
are  of  that  ancient  family.  Am  I  right,"  he  said,  con 
tinuing  to  press  the  young  man's  hand,  but  glancing 
at  Mr.  Brandreth  for  correction,  with  ironical  defer 
ence,  "  in  supposing  that  Mr.  Ray  is  one  of  us  ?  I 
was  sure,"  he  said,  letting  Ray's  hand  go,  with  a  final 
pressure,  "  that  it  must  be  so  from  the  first  moment ! 
The  signs  of  the  high  freemasonry  of  letters  are  un 
mistakable  ! " 

"Mr.  Ray,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  "is  going  to  cast 
his  lot  with  us  here  in  New  York.  He  is  from  Mid 
land,  and  he  is  still  connected  with  one  of  the  papers 
there." 

"  Then  he  is  a  man  to  be  cherished  and  avoided," 
said  Mr.  Kane.  "  But  don't  tell  me  that  he  has  no 
tenderer,  no  more  sacred  tie  to  literature  than  a  mere 
tricious  newspaper  connection ! " 

Ray  laughed,  and  said  from  his  pleased  vanity,  "  Mr. 
Brandreth  has  kindly  consented  to  look  at  a  manu 
script  of  mine." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  61 

"  Poems  ?  "  Mr.  Kane  suggested. 

"  No,  a  novel,"  the  author  answered,  bashfully. 
i  "  The  great  American  one,  of  course  ?  " 

"  We  are  going  to  see,"  said  the  young  publisher, 
gaily. 

"  Well,  that  is  good.  It  is  pleasant  to  have  the  old 
literary  tradition  renewed  in  all  the  freshness  of'  its 
prime,  and  to  have  young  Genius  coming  up  to  New 
York  from  the  provinces  with  a  manuscript  under  its 
arm,  just  as  it  used  to  come  up  to  London,  and  I've  no 
doubt  to  Memphis  and  to  Nineveh,  for  that  matter; 
the  indented  tiles  must  have  been  a  little  more  cum 
brous  than  the  papyrus,  and  were  probably  conveyed 
in  an  ox-cart.  And  when  you  offered  him  your  novel, 
Mr.  Ray,  did  Mr.  Brandreth  say  that  the  book  trade 
was  rather  dull,  just  now  ?  " 

"Something  of  that  kind,"  Ray  admitted,  with  a 
laugh ;  and  Mr.  Brandreth  laughed  too. 

"  I'm  glad  of  that,"  said  Mr.  Kane.  "  It  would  not 
have  been  perfect  without  that.  They  always  say 
that.  I've  no  doubt  the  publishers  of  Memphis  and 
Nineveh  said  it  in  their  day.  It  is  the  publishers'  way 
with  authors.  It  makes  the  author  realize  the  immense 
advantage  of  getting  a  publisher  on  any  terms  at  such 
a  disastrous  moment,  and  he  leaves  the  publisher  to  fix 
the  terms.  It  is  quite  right.  You  are  launched,  my 
dear  friend,  and  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  let  yourself 
go.  You  will  probably  turn  out  an  ocean  greyhound ; 
we  expect  no  less  when  we  are  launched.  In  that 
case,  allow  an  old  water-logged  derelict  to  hail  you,  and 


G2  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

wish  you  a  prosperous  voyage  to  the  Happy  Isles." 
Mr.  Kane  smiled  blandly,  and  gave  Ray  a  bow  that 
had  the  quality  of  a  blessing. 

"  Oh,  that  book  of  yours  is  going  to  do  well  yet,  Mr. 
Kane,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  consolingly.  "  I  believe 
there's  going  to  be  a  change  in  the  public  taste,  and 
good  literature  is  going  to  have  its  turn  again." 

"  Let  us  hope  so,"  said  Mr.  Kane,  devoutly.  "  We 
will  pray  that  the  general  reader  may  be  turned  from 
the  error  of  his  ways,  and  eschew  fiction  and  cleave  to 
'moral  reflections,  But  not  till  our  dear  friend's  novel 
has  made  its  success ! "  He  inclined  himself  again 
towards  Ray.  "  Though,  perhaps,"  he  suggested,  "  it 
is  a  novel  with  a  purpose  ?  " 

"  I'm  afraid  hardly  "  —  Ray  began  ;  but  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  interposed. 

"It  is  a  psychological  romance  —  the  next  thing  on 
the  cards,  /  believe !  " 

"  Indeed  !  "  said  Mr.  Kane.  "  Do  you  speak  by  the 
card,  now,  as  a  confidant  of  fate ;  or  is  this  the  exu 
berant  optimism  of  a  fond  young  father  ?  Mr.  Ray,  I 
am  afraid  you  have  taken  our  friend  when  he  is  all 
molten  and  fluid  with  happiness,  and  have  abused  his 
kindness  for  the  whole  race  to  your  single  advantage  !  " 

a  No,  no !  Nothing  of  the  kind,  I  assure  you  !  " 
said  Mr.  Brandreth,  joyously.  "  Everything  is  on  a 
strict  business  basis  with  me,  always.  But  I  wish  you 
could  see  that  little  fellow,  Mr.  Kane.  Of  course  it 
sounds  preposterous  to  say  it  of  a  child  only  eight  days 
old,  but  I  believe  he  begins  to  notice  already." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  63 

"You  must  get  him  to  notice  your  books.  Do  get 
him  to  notice  mine !  He  is  beginning  young,  but  per 
haps  not  too  young  for  a  critic,"  said  Mr.  Kane,  and  he 
abruptly  took  his  leave,  as  one  does  when  he  thinks  he 
has  made  a  good  point,  and  Mr.  Brandreth  laughed  the 
laugh  of  a  man  who  magnanimously  joins  in  the  mirth 
made  at  his  expense. 

Ray  stayed  a  moment  after  Mr.  Kane  went  out,  and 
Brandreth  said,  "There  is  one  of  the  most  puzzling 
characters  in  New  York.  If  he  could  put  himself  into 
a  book,  it  would  make  his  fortune.  He's  a  queer 
genius.  Nobody  knows  how  he  lives  ;  but  I  fancy  he 
has  a  little  money  of  his  own ;  his  book  doesn't  sell 
fifty  copies  in  a  year.  What  did  he  mean  by  that 
about  the  travelling-bag  ?  " 

Ray  explained,  and  Mr.  Brandreth  said  :  "  Just  like 
him !  He  must  have  spotted  you  in  an  instant.  He 
has  nothing  to  do,  and  he  spends  most  of  his  time  wan 
dering  about.  He  says  New  York  is  his  book,  and  he 
reads  it  over  and  over.  If  he  could  only  work  up  that 
idea,  he  could  make  a  book  that  everybody  would  want. 
But  he  never  will.  He's  one  of  those  men  whose  talk 
makes  you  think  he  could  write  anything ;  but  his 
book  is  awfully  dry  —  perfectly  crumby.  Ever  see  it? 
Hard,  Sayings  ?  Well,  good-by  !  I  ivish  I  could  ask 
you  up  to  my  house  ;  but  you  see  how  it  is  !  " 

"  Oh,  yes !  I  see,"  said  Ray.  "  You're  only  too 
good  as  it  is,  Mr.  Brandreth." 


X. 

RAY'S  voice  broke  a,  'little  as  he  said  this ;  but  he 
hoped  Mr.  Brandreth  did  not  notice,  and  he  made 
haste  to  get  out  into  the  crowded  street,  and  be  alone 
with  his  emotions.  He  was  quite  giddy  with  the  turn 
that  Fortune's  wheel  had  taken,  and  he  walked  a  long 
way  up  town  before  he  recovered  his  balance.  He  had 
never  dreamt  of  such  prompt  consideration  as  Mr. 
Brandreth  had  promised  to  give  his  novel.  He  had 
expected  to  carry  it  round  from  publisher  to  publisher, 
and  to  wait  weeks,  and  perhaps  whole  months,  for 
their  decision.  Most  of  them  he  imagined  refusing  to 
look  at  it  at  all ;  and  he  had  prepared  himself  for 
rebuffs.  He  could  not  help  thinking  that  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth's  different  behavior  was  an  effect  of  his  goodness 
of  heart,  and  of  his  present  happiness.  Of  course  he 
was  a  little  ridiculous  about  that  baby  of  his ;  Ray 
supposed  that  was  natural,  but  he  decided  that  if  he 
should  ever  be  a  father  he  would  not  gush  about  it  to 
the  first  person  he  met.  He  did  not  like  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth's  interrupting  him  with  the  account  of  those  ama 
teur  theatricals  when  he  was  outlining  the  plot  of  his 
story ;  but  that  was  excusable,  and  it  showed  that  he 
was  really  interested.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  acci 
dental  fact  that  Mr.  Brandreth  had  taken  the  part  of 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  65 

Romeo  in  those  theatricals,  he  might  not  have  caught 
on  to  the  notion  of  A  Modern  Jtomeo  at  all.  The 
question  whether  he  was  not  rather  silly  himself  to 
enter  so  fully  into  his  plot,  helped  him  to  condone  Mr. 
Brandreth's  weakness,  which  was  not  incompatible 
with  shrewd  business  sense.  All  that  Mr.  Brandreth 
had  said  of  the  state  of  the  trade  and  its  new  condi 
tions  was  sound ;  he  was  probably  no  fool  where  his 
interest  was  concerned.  Ray  resented  for  him  the 
cruelty  of  Mr.  Kane  in  turning  the  baby's  precocity 
into  the  sort  of  joke  he  had  made  of  it ;  but  he 
admired  his  manner  of  saying  things,  too.  He  would 
work  up  very  well  in  a  story  ;  but  he  ought  to  be  made 
pathetic  as  well  as  ironical ;  he  must  be  made  to  have 
had  an  early  unhappy  love-affair ;  the  girl  either  to 
have  died,  or  to  have  heartlessly  jilted  him.  He 
could  be  the  hero's  friend  at  some  important  moment ; 
Ray  did  not  determine  just  at  what  moment ;  but  the 
hero  should  be  about  to  wreck  his  happiness,  somehow, 
and  Mr.  Kane  should  save  him  from  the  rash  act,  and 
then  should  tell  him  the  story  of  his  own  life.  Ray 
recurred  to  the  manuscript  he  had  left  with  Mr.  Bran 
dreth,  and  wondered  if  Mr.  Brandreth  would  read  it 
himself,  and  if  he  did,  whether  he  would  see  any 
resemblance  between  the  hero  and  the  author.  He 
had  sometimes  been  a  little  ashamed  of  that  mesmeriza- 
tion  business  in  the  story,  but  if  it  struck  a  mood  of 
the  reading  public,  it  wrould  be  a  great  piece  of  luck ; 
and  he  prepared  himself  to  respect  it.  If  Chapley  & 
Co.  accepted  the  book,  he  was  going  to  write  all  that 
passage  over,  and  strengthen  it, 


66  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

He  was  very  happy-;  and  lie  said  to  himself  that  he 
must  try  to  be  very  good  and  to  merit  the  fortune  that 
had  befallen  him.  He  must  not  let  it  turn  his  head,  or 
""seem  more  than  it  really  was  ;  after  all  it  was  merely  a 
chance  to  be  heard  that  he  was  given.  He  instinc 
tively  strove  to  arrest  the  wheel  which  was  bringing 
him  up,  and  must  carry  him  down  if  it  kept  on  moving. 
With  an  impulse  of  the  old  heathen  superstition  linger 
ing  in  us  all,  he  promised  his  god,  whom  he  imagined 
to  be  God,  that  he  would  be  very  grateful  and  humble 
if  He  would  work  a  little  miracle  for  him,  and  let  the 
wheel  carry  him  up  without  carrying  him  over  arid 
down.  In  the  unconscious  selfishness  which  he  had 
always  supposed  morality,  he  believed  that  the  thing 
most  pleasing  to  his  god  would  be  some  immediate 
effort  in  his  own  behalf,  of  prudent  industry  or  frugal 
ity  ;  and  he  made  haste  to  escape  from  the  bliss  of  his 
high  hopes  as  if  it  were  something  that  was  wrong  in 
itself,  and  that  he  would  perhaps  be  punished  for. 

He  went  to  the  restaurant  where  he  had  breakfasted, 
and  bargained  for  board  and  lodging  by  the  week.  It 
was  not  so  cheap  as  he  had  expected  to  get  it ;  with  an 
apparent  flexibility,  the  landlord  was  rigorous  on  the 
point  of  a  dollar  a  day  for  the  room ;  and  Ray  found 
that  he  must  pay  twelve  dollars  a  week  for  his  board 
and  lodging  instead  of  the  ten  he  had  set  as  a  limit. 
But  he  said  to  himself  that  he  must  take  the  risk,  and 
must  make  up  the  two  dollars,  somehow.  His  room 
was  at  the  top  of  the  house,  and  it  had  a  view  of  the 
fourth  story  of  a  ten-story  apartment-house  opposite ; 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  67 

but  it  had  a  southerly  exposure,  and  there  was  one 
golden  hour  of  the  day  when  the  sun  shone  into  it, 
over  the  shoulder  of  a  lower  edifice  next  to  the  apart 
ment-house,  and  round  the  side  of  a  clock  tower  beyond 
the  avenue.  He  could  see  a  bit  of  the  chalet-roof  of 
an  elevated  railroad  station ;  he  could  see  the  tops  of 
people's  heads  in  the  street  below  if  he  leaned  out  of 
his  window  far  enough,  and  he  had  the  same  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  passing  carts  and  carriages.  He  shared  it 
with  the  sparrows  that  bickered  in  the  window-casing, 
and  with  the  cats  that  crouched  behind  the  chimneys 
and  watched  the  progress  of  the  sparrows'  dissensions 
with  furtive  and  ironical  eyes. 

Within,  the  slope  of  the  roof  gave  a  picturesque 
slant  to  the  ceiling.  The  room  was  furnished  with  an 
American  painted  set ;  there  was  a  clock  on  the  little 
shelf  against  the  wall  that  looked  as  if  it  were  French; 
but  it  was  not  going,  and  there  was  no  telling  what 
accent  it  might  tick  with  if  it  were  wound  up.  There 
was  a  little  mahogany  table  in  one  corner  near  the 
window  to  write  on,  arid  he  put  his  books  up  on  the 
shelf  on  each  side  of  the  clock. 

It  was  all  very  different  from  the  dignified  housing 
of  his  life  at  Midland,  where  less  than  the  money  he 
paid  here  got  him  a  stately  parlor,  with  a  little  chamber 
out  of  it,  at  the  first  boarding-house  in  the  place.  But 
still  he  would  not  have  been  ashamed  to  have  any  one 
from  Midland  see  him  in  his  present  quarters.  They 
were  proper  to  New  York  in  that  cosmopolitan  phase 
which  he  had  most  desired  to  see.  He  tried  writing  at 


68  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

the  little  table,  and  found  it  very  convenient.  He 
forced  himself,  just  for  moral  effect,  and  to  show  him 
self  that  he  was  master  of  all  his  moods,  to  finish  his 
letter  to  the  Echo,  and  he  pleased  himself  very  well 
with  it.  He  made  it  light  and  lively,  and  yet  contrived 
to  give  it  certain  touches  of  poetry  and  to  throw  in 
bits  of  description  which  he  fancied  had  caught  some 
thing  of  the  thrill  and  sparkle  of  the  air,  and  imparted 
some  sense  of  such  a  day  as  he  felt  it  to  be.  He  fan 
cied  different  friends  turning  to  the  letter  the  first 
thing  in  the  paper ;  and  in  the  fond  remembrance  of 
the  kindness  he  had  left  behind  there,  he  became 
a  little  homesick. 


XL 

RAY  would  have  liked  to  go  again  that  day,  and 
give  Mr.  Brandreth  his  new  address  in  person  ;  but  he 
was  afraid  it  would  seem  too  eager,  and  would  have  a 
bad  effect  on  the  fortunes  of  his  book.  He  mastered 
himself  so  far  that  even  the  next  day  he  did  not  go, 
but  sent  it  in  a  note.  Then  he  was  sorry  he  had  done 
this,  for  it  might  look  a  little  too  indifferent ;  that  is, 
he  feigned  that  it  might  have  this  effect ;  but  what  he 
really  regretted  was  that  it  cut  him  off  from  going  to 
see  Mr.  Brandreth  as  soon  as  he  would  have  liked.  It 
would  be  absurd  to  run  to  him  directly  after  writing. 
He  languished  several  days  in  the  heroic  resolution  not 
to  go  near  Chapley  &  Co.  until  a  proper  time  had 
passed ;  then  he  took  to  walking  up  and  down  Broad 
way,  remote  from  their  place  at  first,  and  afterwards 
nearer,  till  it  came  to  his  pacing  slowly  past  their  door, 
and  stopping  at  their  window,  in  the  hope  that  one  or 
other  of  the  partners  would  happen  upon  him  in  some 
of  their  comings  or  goings.  But  they  never  did,  and 
he  had  a  faint,  heart-sick  feeling  of  disappointment, 
such  as  he  used  to  have  when  he  hung  about  the  prem 
ises  of  his  first  love  in  much  the  same  fashion  and  to 
much  the  same  effect. 

He  cajoled  himself  by  feigning  interviews,  now  with 


70  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Mr.  Chapley  and  now  with  Mr.  Brandreth ;  the  pub 
lishers  accepted  his  manuscript  with  transport,  and 
offered  him  incredible  terms.  The  good  old  man's 
voice  shook  with  emotion  in  hailing  Ray  as  the  heir  of 
Hawthorne ;  Mr.  Brandreth  had  him  up  to  dinner,  and 
presented  him  to  his  wife  and  baby;  he  named  the 
baby  for  them  jointly.  As  nothing  of  this  kind  really 
happened,  Ray's  time  passed  rather  forlornly.  With 
out  being  the  richer  for  it,  he  won  the  bets  he  made 
himself,  every  morning,  that  he  should  not  get  a  letter 
that  day  from  Chapley  &  Co.,  asking  to  see  him  at 
once,  or  from  Mr.  Brandreth  hoping  for  the  pleasure  of 
his  company  upon  this  social  occasion  or  that.  He 
found  that  he  had  built  some  hopes  upon  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth's  hospitable  regrets  ;  and  as  he  did  not  know  how 
long  it  must  be  after  a  happiness  of  the  kind  Mrs. 
Brandreth  had  conferred  upon  her  husband  before  her 
house  could  be  set  in  order  for  company,  he  was  per 
haps  too  impatient.  But  he  did  not  suffer  himself  to 
be  censorious  ;  he  was  duly  grateful  to  Mr.  Brandreth 
for  his  regrets ;  he  had  not  expected  them ;  but  for 
them  he  would  not  have  expected  anything. 

He  did  what  he  could  to  pass  the  time  by  visiting 
other  publishers  with  Mr.  Brandreth 's  card.  He  per 
ceived  sometimes,  or  fancied  that  he  perceived,  a 
shadow  of  anxiety  in  the  gentlemen  who  received  him 
so  kindly,  but  it  vanished,  if  it  ever  existed,  when  he 
put  himself  frankly  on  the  journalistic  ground,  and  sat 
isfied  them  that  he  had  no  manuscript  lurking  about 
him.  Then  he  found  some  of  them  willing  to  drop 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  71 

into  chat  about  the  trade,  and  try  to  forecast  its  nearer 
future,  if  not  to  philosophize  its  conditions.  They 
appeared  to  think  these  were  all  right ;  and  it  did  not 
strike  Ray  as  amiss  that  a  work  of  literary  art  should 
be  regarded  simply  as  a  merchantable  or  unmerchant 
able  commodity,  or  as  a  pawn  in  a  game,  a  counter 
that  stood  for  a  certain  money  value,  a  risk  which  the 
player  took,  a  wager  that  he  made. 

"  You  know  it's  really  that,"  one  publisher  explained 
to  Ray.  "  No  one  can  tell  whether  a  book  will  suc 
ceed  or  not ;  no  one  knows  what  makes  a  book  succeed. 
We  have  published  things  that  I've  liked  and  respected 
thoroughly,  and  that  I've  taken  a  personal  pride  and 
pleasure  in  pushing.  They've  been  well  received  and 
intelligently  praised  by  the  best  critics  from  the  Atlan 
tic  to  the  Pacific,  and  cultivated  people  have  talked 
about  them  everywhere ;  and  they  haven't  sold  fifteen 
hundred  copies  Then  we've  tried  trash  —  decent 
trash,  of  course  ;  we  always  remember  the  cheek  of  the 
Young  Person  —  and  we've  all  believed  that  we  had 
something  that  would  hit  the  popular  mood,  and  would 
leap  into  the  tens  of  thousands  ;  and  it's  dropped  dead 
from  the  press.  Other  works  of  art  and  other  pieces 
of  trash  succeed  for  no  better  reason  than  some  fail. 

*^You  can't  tell  anything  about  it.     If  I  were  to  trust  } 
my  own  observation,  I  should  say  it  was  hick,  pure  and  j 
Dimple,  and   mostly  bad   luck.     Ten   books   fail,  and  j 
twenty  books    barely  pay,  where  one  succeeds.     No 
body  can  say  why.    Can't  I  send  you  some  of  our  new 
books  ?  "     He  had  a  number  of  them  on  a  table  near 

V 


72  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

him,  and  he  talked  them  over  with  Ray,  while  a  clerk 
did  them  up ;  and  he  would  not  let  Ray  trouble  himself 
to  carry  them  away  with  him.  They  were  everywhere 
lavish  of  their  publications  with  him,  and  he  had  so 
many  new  books  and  advance  sheets  given  him  that  if 
he  had  been  going  to  write  his  letters  for  the  Echo 
about  literature  alone,  he  would  have  had  material  for 
many  weeks  ahead. 

The  letters  he  got  at  this  time  were  some  from 
home :  a  very  sweet  one  from  his  mother,  fondly  con 
jecturing  and  questioning  about  his  comfort  in  New 
York,  and  cautioning  him  not  to  take  cold ;  a  serious 
one  from  his  father,  advising  him  to  try  each  week  to 
put  by  something  for  a  rainy  day.  There  was  also  a 
letter  from  Sanderson,  gay  with  news  of  all  the  goings 
on  in  Midland,  and  hilariously  regretful  of  his  absence. 
Sanderson  did  not  say  anything  about  coming  to  New 
York  to  seek  his  fortune,  and  the  effect  of  his  news 
was  to  leave  Ray  pining  for  the  society  of  women, 
which  had  always  been  the  sweetest  thing  in  life  to 
him,  and  next  to  literature  the  dearest.  If  he  could 
have  had  immediate  literary  success,  the  excitement  of 
it  might  have  made  him  forget  the  privilege  he  had  en 
joyed  at  Midland  of  going  every  evening  to  call  on 
some  lovely  young  girl,  and  of  staying  as  long  as  he 
liked.  What  made  him  feel  still  more  lonesome  and 
dropped  out  was  Sanderson's  telling  of  several  engage 
ments  among  the  girls  they  knew  in  Midland ;  it 
appeared  to  him  that  he  only  was  destined  to  go  love 
less  and  mateless  through  life. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  73 

There  were  women  enough  in  his  hotel,  but  after  the 
first  interest  of  their  strangeness,  and  the  romantic 
effect  of  hearing  them  speak  in  their  foreign  tongues 
as  if  they  were  at  home  in  them,  he  could  not  imagine 
a  farther  interest  in  those  opaque  Southern  blondes, 
who  spoke  French,  or  the  brunettes  with  purple-ringed 
vast  eyes,  who  coughed  out  their  Spanish  gutturals 
like  squirrels.  He  was  appointed  a  table  for  his  meals 
in  a  dining-room  that  seemed  to  be  reserved  for  its  in 
mates,  as  distinguished  from  the  frequenters  of  the 
restaurant,  who  looked  as  if  they  were  all  Americans ; 
and  he  was  served  by  a  shining  black  waiter  weirdly 
ignorant  of  English.  He  gazed  wistfully  across  into 
the  restaurant  at  times,  and  had  half  a  mind  to  ask  if 
he  might  not  eat  there ;  but  he  liked  the  glances  of 
curiosity  and  perhaps  envy  which  its  frequenters  now 
and  then  cast  at  him  in  the  hotel  dining-room.  There 
were  no  young  ladies  among  them,  that  he  ever  saw, 
but  sometimes  there  were  young  men  whom  he  thought 
he  would  have  liked  to  talk  with.  Some  of  them 
came  in  company,  and  at  dinner  they  sat  long,  discuss 
ing  matters  which  he  could  overhear  by  snatches  were 
literary  and  artistic  matters.  They  always  came  late, 
and  rarely  sat  down  before  seven,  when  Ray  was  fin 
ishing  his  coffee.  One  night  these  comrades  came 
later  than  usual  and  in  unusual  force,  and  took  a  large 
table  set  somewhat  apart  from  the  rest  in  the  bay  of  a 
deep  window  which  had  once  looked  out  into  the  little 
garden  of  the  dwelling  that  the  hotel  had  once  been. 
They  sat  down,  with  a  babble  of  questions  arid  an- 


74  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

swers,  as  of  people  who  had  not  all  met  for  some  time, 
and  devoured  the  little  radishes  and  olives  and  ancho 
vies,  with  which  the  table  had  been  prefatorily  fur 
nished,  in  apparent  patience  till  all  the  places  but  the 
head  of  the  table  had  been  taken ;  then  they  began  to 
complain  and  to  threaten  at  the  delay  of  the  dinner. 
Ray  was  not  aware  just  how  a  furious  controversy  sud 
denly  began  to  rage  between  two  of  them.  As  nearly 
as  he  could  make  out,  amidst  the  rapid  thrust  and  parry 
of  the  principals,  and  the  irregular  lunges  of  this  one 
or  that  of  the  company  which  gave  it  the  character  of 
a  free  fight,  it  turned  upon  a  point  of  aesthetics,  where 
the  question  was  whether  the  moral  aspect  ought  or 
ought  not  to  be  sought  in  it.  In  the  heat  of  the 
debate  the  chiefs  of  the  discussion  talked  both  at  once, 
interrupted  each  other,  tried  which  should  clamor 
loudest  and  fastest,  and  then  suddenly  the  whole  up 
roar  fell  to  silence.  The  two  parties  casually  discov 
ered  that  they  were  of  exactly  the  same  mind,  but 
each  had  supposed  the  other  thought  differently.  Some 
one  came  in  during  the  lull  that  followed,  and  took  the 
seat  at  the  head  of  the  table. 

It  was  Mr.  Kane,  and  Ray's  heart  leaped  with  the 
hope  that  he  would  see  him  and  recognize  him,  but  out 
of  self-respect  he  tried  to  look  as  if  it  wrere  not  he,  but 
perhaps  some  one  who  closely  resembled  him.  He 
perceived  that  it  was  a  club  dinner  of  some  literary 
sort;  but  because  he  could  not  help  wishing  that  he 
were  one  of  the  company,  he  snubbed  his  desires  with 
unsparing  cruelty.  He  looked  down  at  his  plate,  and 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  /O 

shunned  the  roving  glance  which  he  felt  sure  Mr. 
Kane  was  sending  into  the  room  where  he  now  sat 
almost  alone;  and  he  did  his  best  to  be  ashamed  of 
overhearing  the  talk  now  and  then.  He  grew  very 
bitter  in  his  solitude,  and  he  imagined  himself  using 
Mr.  Kane  with  great  hauteur,  after  A  Modern  Romeo 
had  succeeded.  He  was  not  obliged  to  go  out  that 
way,  when  he  left  the  dining-room,  but  he  feigned 
that  he  must,  and  in  spite  of  the  lofty  stand  he  had 
taken  with  Mr.  Kane  in  fancy,  he  meanly  passed 
quite  near  him.  Kane  looked  up,  and  called  out, 
"  Ah,  good-evening,  good-evening !  "  and  rose  and  shook 
hands  with  him,  and  asked  him  how  in  the  world  he 
happened  to  have  found  out  that  restaurant,  and  he 
was  astonished  to  hear  that  Ray  was  staying  in  the 
hotel ;  he  said  that  was  very  chic.  He  introduced  him 
to  the  company  generally,  as  his  young  friend  Mr.  Ray, 
of  Midland,  who  had  come  on  to  cast  in  his  literary 
lot  with  them  in  New  York ;  and  then  he  presented 
him  personally  to  the  nearest  on  either  hand.  They 
were  young  fellows,  but  their  names  were  known  to 
Ray  with  the  planetary  distinctness  that  the  names  of 
young  authors  have  for  literary  aspirants,  though  they 
are  all  so  nebulous  to  older  eyes.  . 

Mr.  Kane  asked  Ray  to  sit  down  and  take  his  coffee 
with  them ;  Ray  said  he  had  taken  his  coffee ;  they  all 
urged  that  this  was  no  reason  why  he  should  not  take 
some  more;  he  stood  out  against  them,  like  a  fool  — 
as  he  later  called  himself  with  gnashing  teeth.  He 
pretended  he  had  an  engagement,  and  he  left  the  pleas- 


7C  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

ant  company  he  was  hungering  so  to  join,  and  went 
out  and  walked  the  streets,  trying  to  stay  himself  with 
the  hope  that  he  had  made  a  better  impression  than  if 
he  had  remained  and  enjoyed  himself.  He  was  so 
lonesome  when  he  came  back,  and  caught  the  sound  of 
their  jolly  voices  on  his  way  up  stairs,  that  he  could 
hardly  keep  from  going  in  upon  them,  and  asking  if 
they  would  let  him  sit  with  them.  In  his  room  he 
could  not  work ;  he  wanted  to  shed  tears  in  his  social 
isolation.  He  determined  to  go  back  to  Midland,  at 
any  <'ost  to  his  feelings  or  fortunes,  or  even  to  the 
little  village  where  his  family  lived,  and  where  he  had 
been  so  restless  and  unhappy  till  he  could  get  away 
from  it.  Now,  any  place  seemed  better  than  this 
waste  of  unknown  hundreds  of  thousands  of  human  / 
beings,  where  he  had  not  a  friend,  or  even  an  enemy.  / 


>PBBJ 

x         or  THF 
f    UNIVERSITY  j 

\C 


•XTT. 

IN  the  morning  Ray  woke  resolved  to  brace  up 
against  the  nerveless  suspense  he  had  been  in  ever 
since  lie  had  left  his  manuscript  with  Mr.  Brandreth, 
and  go  and  present  the  letters  that  some  people  in 
Midland  had  given  him  to  their  friends  in  New  York. 
At  least  he  need  not  suffer  from  solitude  unless  he 
chose ;  he  wondered  if  it  would  do  to  present  his  let 
ters  on  Sunday. 

He  breakfasted  in  this  question.  Shortly  after  he 
went  back  to  his  room,  there  was  a  knock  at  his  door, 
and  when  he  shouted  "  Come  in !  "  it  was  set  softly 
ajar,  and  Mr.  Kane  showed  his  face  at  the  edge  of  it. 

"I  suppose  you  know,"  he  said,  ignoring  Ray's 
welcome,  "  or  if  you  haven't  been  out,  you  don't  know, 
that  this  is  one  of  those  Sunday  mornings  which  make 
you  feel  that  it  lias  been  blessed  and  hallowed  above 
all  the  other  days  of  the  week.  But  I  dare  say/'  he 
added,  coming  inside,  "  that  the  Mohammedans  feel 
exactly  so  about  a  particularly  fine  Friday." 

He  glanced  round  the  little  room  with  an  air  of 
delicate  impartiality,  and  asked  leave  to  look  from 
Ray's  window.  As  he  put  his  head  out,  he  said  to 
the  birds  in  the  eaves,  "  Ah,  sparrows  !  "  as  if  he  knew 
them  personally,  before  he  began  to  make  com- 


78  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

pliments  to  the  picturesque  facts  of  the  prospect. 
Then  he  stood  with  his  back  to  Ray,  looking  down 
into  the  street,  and  praising  the  fashion  of  the  shadow 
and  sunshine  in  meeting  so  solidly  there,  at  all  sorts 
of  irregular  points  and  angles.  Once  he  looked  round 
and  asked,  with  the  sun  making  his  hair  all  a  shining 
silver : 

"  Has  any  one  else  been  shown  this  view  ?  No  ? 
Then  let  me  be  the  first  to  utter  the  stock  imbecility 
that  it  ought  to  inspire  you  if  anything  could."  He 
put  out  his  head  again,  and  gave  a  glance  upward  at 
the  speckless  heaven,  and  then  drew  it  in.  "Yes," 
he  said,  thoughtfully,  "  a  partially  clouded  sky  is  better 
for  us,  no  doubt.  Why  didn't  you  sit  down  with  us 
last  night?  I  saw  that  you  wished  to  do  so."  He 
faced  Ray  benignly,  with  a  remote  glimmer  of  mock 
ing  in  his  eye. 

Ray  felt  it  safest  to  answer  frankly.  "  Yes,  I  did 
want  to  join  you  awfully.  I  overheard  a  good  deal 
you  were  saying  where  I  was  sitting,  but  I  couldn't 
accept  your  invitation.  I  knew  it  was  a  great  chance, 
but  I  couldn't." 

"  Don't  you  know,"  Mr.  Kane  asked,  "  that  the 
chances  have  a  polite  horror  of  iteration  ?  Those  men 
and  those  moods  may  never  be  got  together  again. 
You  oughtn't  to  have  thrown  such  a  chance  away !  " 

"  I  know,"  said  Ray.     "  But  I  had  to." 

Mr.  Kane  leaned  back  in  the  chair  he  had  taken, 
and  murmured  as  if  to  himself :  "  Ah^  youth,  youth  ! 
Yes,  it  has  to  throw  chances  away.  Waste  is  a  condi- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  79 

tion  of  survival.  Otherwise  we  should  perish  of  mere 
fruition.  But  could  you,"  he  asked,  addressing  Ray 
more  directly,  "  without  too  much  loss  to  the  intima 
cies  that  every  man  ought  to  keep  sacred,  could  you 
tell  me  just  why  you  had  to  refuse  us  your  company  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Ray,  with  the  self-scorn  which  Mr. 
Kane's  attitude  enabled  him  to  show.  "  I  was  so  low- 
spirited  that  I  couldn't  rise  to  the  hands  that  offered 
to  pull  me  out  of  my  Slough  of  Despond.  I  felt  that 
the  slightest  exertion  would  sink  me  over  head  and 
ears.  I  had  better  stay  as  I  was." 

"  I  understand,"  said  Mr.  Kane.  "  But  why  should 
a  man  of  your  age  be  in  low  spirits  ?  " 

"  Why  ?  Nobody  can  tell  why  he's  in  low  spirits 
exactly.  I  suppose  I  got  to  thinking  the  prospect  for 
my  book  wasn't  very  gay.  It's  hard  to  wait." 

"Was  that  all?" 

"  I  was  a  little  homesick,  too.  But  wasn't  the  other 
enough  ?  " 

"I  can't  say.  It's  a  long  time  since  I  was  your 
age.  But  shall  I  tell  you  what  I  first  thought  your 
unhappiness  was,  when  you  confessed  it  just  now  ?  " 

"  Yes,  by  all  means." 

"I  wonder  if  I'd  better!  I  supposed  it  was  not 
such  as  any  man  could  inflict.  Excuse  me ! "  He 
kept  his  eyes  smilingly  on  the  young  fellow's  face,  as 
if  to  prevent  his  taking  the  audacity  in  bad  part.  "  I 
don't  know  why  I  should  say  this  to  you,  except  that 
it  really  went  through  my  mind,  and  I  did  you  the 
wrong  to  wonder  why  you  should  mention  it." 


80  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  I  can  forgive  the  wrong ;  it's  so  very  far  from  the 
fact "  —  Ray  began. 

"Ah,  you've  already  noticed  that !  "  Mr  Kane  inter 
rupted. 

"Noticed  what?  " 

"  That  we  can  forgive  people,  their  injurious  conject 
ures  when  they're  wrong  rather  than  when  they're 
right  ?  " 

"  No,  I  hadn't  noticed,"  Ray  confessed ;  and  he 
added,  "  I  was  only  thinking  how  impossible  that  was 
for  me  in  a  place  where  I  haven't  spoken  to  a  woman 
yet." 

If  Mr.  Kane  tasted  the  bitterness  in  a  speech  which 
Ray  tried  to  carry  off  with  a  laugh,  his  words  did  not 
confess  it.  "  It  wasn't  a  reasoned  conjecture,  and  I 
don't  defend  it ;  I'm  only  too  glad  to  escape  from  it 
without  offence.  When  I  was  of  your  age,  a  slight 
from  a  woman  was  the  only  thing  that  could  have 
kept  me  from  any  pleasure  that  offered  itself.  But  I 
understand  that  now  youth  is  made  differently." 

"  I  don't  see  why,"  said  Ray,  and  he  quelled  a  desire 
he  had  to  boast  of  his  wounds  ;  he  permitted  himself 
merely  to  put  on  an  air  of  gloom. 

"Why,  I've  been  taught  that  modern  society  and 
civilization  generally  has  so  many  consolations  for  un 
requited  affection  that  young  men  don't  suffer  from 
that  sort  of  trouble  any  more,  or  not  deeply." 

Ray  was  sensible  that  Mr.  Kane's  intrusiveness  was 
justifiable  upon  the  ground  of  friendly  interest;  and 
he  was  riot  able  to  repel  what  seemed  like  friendly 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  81 

interest.     "  It  may  be  as  you  say,  in  New  York ;  I've 
not  been  here  long  enough  to  judge." 
.  "But  in   Midland    things   go    on  in  the  old  way? 
Tell  rne  something  about  Midland,  and  why  any  one 
should  ever  leave  Midland  for  New  York  ?  " 

"I  can't  say,  generally  speaking,"  answered  Ray, 
with  pleasure  in  Kane's  pursuit,  "but  I  think  that  in 
my  case  Midland  began  it." 

"Yes?" 

Ray  was  willing  enough  to  impart  as  much  of  his 
autobiography  as  related  to  the  business  change  that 
had  thrown  him  out  of  his  place  on  the  Echo.  Then 
he  sketched  with  objective  airiness  the  sort  of  life  one 
led  in  Midland,  if  one  was  a  young  man  in  society ; 
and  he  found  it  no  more  than  fair  to  himself  to  give 
some  notion  of  his  own  local  value  in  a  graphic  little 
account  of  the  farewell  dinner. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Kane,  "I  can  imagine  how  you 
should  miss  all  that,  and  I  don't  know  that  New  York 
has  anything  so  pleasant  to  offer.  I  fancy  the  condi 
tions  of  society  are  incomparably  different  in  Midland 
and  in  New  York.  You  seem  to  me  a  race  of  shep 
herds  and  shepherdesses  out  there  ;  your  pretty  world 
\ is  like  a  dream  of  my  own  youth,  when  Boston  was 
still  only  a  large  town,  and  was  not  so  distinctly  an 
aoristic  Athens  as  it  is  now." 

"  I  had  half  a  mind  to  go  to  Boston  with  my  book 
first,"  said  Ray.  "But  somehow  I  thought  there 
were  more  chances  in  New  York." 

"  There  are  certainly  more  publishers,"  Kane   ad- 


82  THE    WORLD    OP    CHANCE. 

mitted.  "  Whether  there  are  more  chances  depends 
upon  how  much  independent  judgment  there  is  among 
the  publishers.  Have  you  found  them  very  judicial  ?  " 

"  I  don't  quite  understand  what  you  mean." 

"  Did  any  one  of  them  seem  to  be  a  man  who  would 
give  your  novel  an  unprejudiced  reading  if  you  took  it 
to  him  and  told  him  honestly  that  it  had  been  rejected 
by  all  the  others?" 

"jSTo,  I  can't  say  any  of  them  did.  But  I  don't 
know  that  I  could  give  my  manuscript  an  unprejudiced 
reading  myself  under  the  same  circumstances.  I  cer 
tainly  shouldn't  blame  any  publisher  who  couldn't. 
Should  you?'* 

"I?  I  blame  nobody,  my  dear  friend,"  said  Kane. 
"  That  is  the  way  I  keep  my  temper.  I  should  not 
blame  you  if  Chapley  &  Co.  declined  your  book,  and 
you  went  to  the  rest  of  the  trade  carefully  concealing 
from  each  publisher,  the  fact  that  he  was  not  the  first 
you  had  approached  with  it." 

Hay  laughed,  but  he  winced,  too.  "  I  suppose  that's 
what  I  should  have  to  do.  But  Chapley  &  Co. 
haven't  declined  it  yet." 

"  Ah,  I'm  glad  of  that.  Not  that  you  could  really 
impose  upon  any  one.  There  would  be  certain  infalli 
ble  signs  in  your  manuscript  that  would  betray  you : 
an  air  of  use ;  little  private  marks  and  memoranda  of 
earlier  readers  ;  the  smell  of  their  different  brands  of 
tobacco  and  sachet  powder." 

"  I  shouldn't  try  to  impose  upon  any  one,"  Ray 
began,  with  a  flush  of  indignation,  which  ended  in 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  83 

shame.  "  What  would  you  do  under  the  same  circum 
stances  ?  "  he  demanded,  with  desperation. 

"  My  dear  friend !  My  dear  boy,"  Mr.  Kane  pro 
tested.  "I  am  not  censuring  you.  It's  said  that 
Bismarck  found  it  an  advantage  to  introduce  truth 
even  into  diplomacy.  Pie  discovered  there  was  nothing 
deceived  like  it ;  nobody  believed  him.  Some  success 
ful  advertisers  have  made  it  work  in  commercial  affairs. 
You  mustn't  expect  me  to  say  what  I  should  do  under 
the  same  circumstances  ;  the  circumstances  couldn't  be 
the  same.  I  am  not  the  author  of  a  manuscript  novel 
with  a  potential  public  of  tens  of  thousands.  But  you 
can  imagine  that  as  the  proprietor  of  a  volume  of 
essays  which  has  a  certain  sale  —  Mr.  Brandreth  used 
that  fatal  term  in  speaking  of  my  book,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't  remember  that  he  did,"  said  Ray. 

"  He  was  kinder  than  I  could  have  expected.  It  is 
the  death-knell  of  hope  to  the  devoted  author  when 
his  publisher  tells  him  that  his  book  will  always  have 
a  certain  sale ;  he  is  expressing  in  a  pitying  euphemism 
of  the  trade  that  there  is  no  longer  any  chance  for  it, 
no  happy  accident  in  the  future,  no  fortuity  ;  it  is 
dead.  As  the  author  of  a  book  with  a  certain  sale,  I 
feel  myself  exempt  from  saying  what  I  should  do  in 
your  place.  But  I'm  very  glad  it  hasn't  come  to  the 
ordeal  with  you.  Let  us  hope  you  won't  be  tempted. 
Let  us  hope  that  Messrs.  Chapley  &  Co.  will  be  equal 
to  the  golden  opportunity  offered  them,  and  gradually 
—  snatch  it." 

Kane  smiled,  and  Ray  laughed  out.     He  knew  that 


84  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

he  was  being  played  upon,  but  he  believed  the  touch 
was  kindly,  and  even  what  he  felt  an  occasional  cold 
cynicism  in  it  had  the  fascination  that  cynicism  always 
has  for  the  young  when  it  does  not  pass  from  theory 
to  conduct ;  when  it  does  that,  it  shocks.  He  thought 
that  Mr.  Kane  was  something  like  Warrington  in 
Pendennis,  and  again  something  like  Coverdale  in 
Blithedale  Romance.  He  valued  him  for  that;  he 
was  sure  he  had  a  history  ;  and  when  he  now  rose, 
Ray  said  :  "  Oh,  must  you  go  ?  "  with  eager  regret. 

"  Why,  I  had  thought  of  asking  you  to  come  with 
me.  I'm  going  for  a  walk  in  the  Park,  and  I  want  to 
stop  on  the  way  for  a  moment  to  see  an  old  friend  of 
mine  "  —  he  hesitated,  and  then  added  —  "a  man 
whom  I  was  once  intimately  associated  with  in  some 
joint  hopes  we  had  for  reconstructing  the  world.  I 
think  you  will  be  interested  in  him,  as  a  type,  even  if 
you  don't  like  him." 

Ray  professed  that  he  should  be  very  much  inter 
ested,  and  they  went  out  together. 


XIII. 

THE  streets  had  that  Sunday  sense  which  is  as  un 
mistakable  as  their  week-day  effect.  Their  noises 
were  subdued  almost  to  a  country  quiet ;  as  he  crossed 
with  his  friend  to  the  elevated  station,  Ray  noted  with 
a  lifting  heart  the  sparrows  that  chirped  from  the 
knots  and  streamers  of  red  Virginia-creeper  hanging 
here  and  there  from  a  porch  roof  or  over  a  bit  of 
garden  wall ;  overhead  the  blue  air  was  full  of  the 
jargoning  of  the  blended  church  bells. 

Pie  tried  to  fit  these  facts  with  phrases  in  the  inter 
vals  of  his  desultory  talk  with  Kane,  and  he  had  got 
two  -or  three  very  good  epithets  by  the  time  they  found 
seats  together  in  an  up-town  train.  It  was  not  easy 
to  find  them,  for  the  cars  were  thronged  with  work 
people  going  to  the  Park  for  one  of  the  last  Sundays 
that  could  be  fine  there. 

Kane  said  :  "  The  man  we  are  going  to  see  belongs 
to  an  order  of  thinking  and  feeling  that  one  would 
have  said  a  few  years  ago  had  passed  away  forever, 
but  of  late  its  turn  seems  to  be  coming  again ;  it's 
curious  how  these  things  recur.  Do  you  happen  to 
hate  altruism  in  any  of  its  protean  forms  ?  " 
1  Ray  smiled  with  the  relish  for  the  question  which 


86  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Kane  probably  meant  him  to  feel.     "  I  can't  say  that 
I  have  any  violent  feeling  against  it." 

"  It  is  usually  repulsive  to  young  people,"  Kane 
went  on,  "  and  I  could  very  well  conceive  your  loath 
ing  it.  My  friend,  has  been  an  altruist  of  one  kind  or 
another  all  his  life.  He's  a  man  whom  it  would  be 
perfectly  useless  to  tell  that  the  world  is  quite  good 
enough  for  the  sort  of  people  there  are  in  it ;  he  would 
want  to  set  about  making  the  people  worthy  of  a  better 
world,  and  he  would  probably  begin  on  you.  You 
have  heard  of  Brook  FarmA  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  Of  course,"  Ray  answered,  with  a  show  of  resent 
ment  for  such  a  question.  "  Blithedale  Romance  —  I 
think  it's  the  best  of  Hawthorne's  books." 

"  Blithedale,"  said  Mr.  Kane,  ignoring  the  literary 
interest,  "  is  no  more  Brook  Farm  than  —  But  we 
needn't  enter  upon  that!  My  friend's  career  as  an 
altruist  began  there  ;  and  since  then  there's  hardly 
been  a  communistic  experiment  in  behalf  of  Man  with 
a  capital  and  without  capital  that  he  hasn't  been  into 
and  out  of." 

"I  should  like  immensely  to  see  him,"  said  Ray. 
"  Any  man  who  was  at  Brook  Farm —  Did  he  know 
Hollingsworth  and  Zenobia,  and  Priscilla  and  Cover- 
dale  ?  Was  it  at  Brook  Farm  that  you  met  ?  " 

Kane  shook  his  head.  "  I  think  no  one  knew  them 
but  Hawthorne.  I  don't  speak  positively  ;  Brook 
Farm  was  a  little  before  my  day,  or  else  I  should  have 
been  there  too,  I  dare  say.  But  I've  been  told  those 
characters  never  were." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  87 

Then  it  was  doubly  impossible  that  Hawthorne 
should  have  studied  Miles  Coverdale  from  Kane ;  Ray 
had  to  relinquish  a  theory  he  had  instantly  formed 
upon  no  ground  except  Kane's  sort  of  authority  in 
speaking  of  Brook  Farm  ;  what  was  worse  he  had  to 
abandon  an  instant  purpose  of  carrying  forward  the 
romance  and  doing  The  Last  Days  of  Miles  Coverdale  ; 
it  would  have  been  an  attractive  title. 

"  I  met  David  Hughes,"  Kane  continued,  "  after 
the  final  break-up  of  the  community,  when  I  was  be 
ginning  to  transcendentalize  around  Boston,  and  he 
wanted  me  to  go  into  another  with  him,  out  West. 
He  came  out  of  his  last  community  within  the  year ; 
he  founded  it  himself,  upon  a  perfectly  infallible  prin 
ciple.  It  was  so  impregnable  to  the  logic  either  of 
metaphysics  or  events,  that  Hughes  had  to  break  it  up 
himself,  I  understand.  At  sixty-nine  he  has  discovered 
that  his  efforts  to  oblige  his  fellow-beings  ever  since  he 
was  twenty  have  been  misdirected.  It  isn't  long  for 
an  error  of  that  kind  in  the  life  of  the  race,  but  it 
.hasn't  exactly  left  my  old  friend  in  the  vigor  of  youth. 
SHowever,  his  hope  and  good-will  are  as  athletic  as 
(ever." 

•"  It's  rather  pathetic,"  Ray  suggested. 

"Why,  I  don't  know — I  don't  know!  Is  it  so? 
He  hasn't  found  out  the  wrong  way  without  finding 
the  right  way  at  the  same  time,  and  he's  buoyantly 
hopeful  in  it,  though  he's  not  only  an  old  man  ;  he's  a 
sick  man,  too.  Of  course,  he's  poor.  He  never  was 
a  fellow  to  do  things  by  halves,  and  when  he  dispersed 


88  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

his  little  following  lie  divided  nearly  all  his  substance 
among  his  disciples.  He  sees  now  that  the  right  way 
to  universal  prosperity  and  peace  is  the  political  way ; 
and  if  he  could  live  long  enough,  we  should  see  him  in 
Congress  —  if  we  lived  long  enough.  Naturally,  he  is 
paving  the  way  with  a  hook  he's  writing."  Kane 
went  on  to  speak  of  his  friend  at  length  ;  he  suddenly 
glanced  out  of  the  car  window,  and  said  :  "  Ah,  we're 
just  there.  This  is  our  station." 

The  avenue  had  been  changing  its  character  as  they 
rushed  along.  It  had  ceased  to  be  a  street  of  three  or 
four  story  houses,  where  for  the  most  part  the  people 
lived  over  their  shops,  and  where  there  was  an  effect 
of  excessive  use  on  everything,  a  worn-out  and  shabby 
look,  rather  than  a  squalid  look.  The  cross-streets  of 
towering  tenement-houses,  had  come  and  gone,  and 
now  the  buildings  were  low  again,  with  greater  or  less 
gaps  between  them,  while  the  railroad  had  climbed 
higher,  and  was  like  a  line  drawn  through  the  air 
without  reference  to  the  localities  which  the  train  left 
swiftly  behind.  The  houses  had  begun  to  be  of  wood 
here  and  there,  and  it  was  at  a  frame  of  two  stories 
that  Mr.  Kane  stopped  with  Hay,  when  they  clambered 
down  the  long  iron  staircase  of  the  station  to  the  foot 
way  below.  They  pulled  a  bell  that  sounded  faintly 
somewhere  within,  and  the  catch  of  the  lock  clicked 
as  if  it  were  trying  to  release  itself ;  but  when  they 
tried  the  door  it  was  still  fast,  and  Mr.  Kane  rang 
again.  Then  a  clatter  of  quick,  impatient  feet  sounded 
on  the  stairs  ;  the  door  was  pulled  sharply  open,  and 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  89 

they  confronted  a  tall  young  man,  with  a  handsome 
pale  face,  who  bent  on  them  a  look  of  impartial  gloom 
from  clouded  blue  eyes  under  frowning  brows.  A 
heavy  fringe  of  dull  yellow  hair  almost  touched  their 
level  with  its  straight  line,  which  the  lower  lip  of  the 
impassioned  mouth  repeated. 

"  Ah,  Denton  !  "  said  Mr.  Kane.  "  Good-morning, 
good-morning!  This  is  my  friend,  Mr.  Ray."  The 
young  men  shook  hands  with  a  provisional  civility, 
and  Mr.  Kane  asked,  "  Are  you  all  at  home  ?  " 

"We  are,  at  the  moment,"  said  the  other.  "I'm 
just  going  out  with  the  babies  ;  but  father  will  be  glad 
to  see  you.  Come  in." 

He  had  a  thick  voice  that  came  from  his  throat  by 
nervous  impulses  ;  he  set  the  door  open  and  twisted 
his  head  in  the  direction  of  the  stairs,  as  if  to  invite 
them  to  go  up.  They  found  he  had  a  perambulator  in 
the  narrow  hall  behind  the  door,  and  two  children 
facing  each  other  in  it.  He  got  it  out  on  the  sidewalk 
without  further  attention  to  them,  and  shut  the  door 
after  him.  But  in  the  light  which  his  struggles  to 
get  out  had  let  into  the  entry  they  made  their  way  up 
the  stairs,  where  a  woman's  figure  stood  silhouetted 
against  an  open  door- way  behind  her. 

"  Ah,  Mrs.  Denton,  how  do  you  do  ?  "  said  Kane, 
gaily. 

The  figure  answered  gaily  back,  "  Oh,  Mr.  Kane !  " 
and  after  Kane's  presentation  of  Ray,  set  open  a  door 
that  opened  from  the  landing  into  the  apartment. 
"  Father  will  be  so  glad  to  see  you.  Please  walk  in." 


90 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


Ray  found  himself  in  what  must  be  the  principal 
room  of  the  apartment ;  its  two  windows  commanded 
an  immediate  prospect  of  the  elevated  road,  with  an 
effect  of  having  their  sills  against  its  trestle  work. 
Between  them  stood  a  tall,  gaunt  old  man,  whose  blue 
eyes  flamed  under  the  heavy  brows  of  age,  from  a  face 
set  in  a  wilding  growth  of  iron-gray  hair  and  beard. 
He  was  talking  down  upon  a  gentleman  whom  Ray 
had  black  against  the  light,  and  he  was  saying :  "  No, 

•  Henry,  no !  Tolstoi  is  mistaken.  I  don't  object  to 
his  theories  of  non-resistance  ;  the  Quakers  have  found 

i  them  perfectly  practicable  for  more  than  two  centuries  ; 

i  but  I  say  that  in  quitting  the  scene  of  the  moral 
struggle,  and  in  simplifying  himself  into  a  mere  peas 
ant,  he  begs  the  question  as  completely  as  if  he  had 
gone  into  a  monastery.  He  has  struck  out  some  tre 
mendous  truths,  I  don't  deny  that,  and  his  examination 
of  the  conditions  of  civilization  is  one  of  the  most  ter 
rifically  searching  studies  of  the  facts  that  have  ever 
been  contributed  to  the  science  of  sociology ;  but  his 
conclusions  are  as  wrong  as  his  premises  are  right.  If 
I  had  back  the  years  that  I  have  wasted  in  a  perfectly 
futile  effort  to  deal  with  the  problem  of  the  race  at  a 
distance  where  I  couldn't  touch  it,  I  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  erernitism  in  any  of  its  forms, 
either  collectively  as  we  have  had  it  in  our  various 
communistic  experiments,  or  individually  on  the  terms 
which  Tolstoi'  apparently  advises." 

"  But  I  don't  understand  him  to  advise  eremitism," 
the  gentleman  began. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


91 


"  It  amounts  to  the  same  thing,"  said  the  other,  cut 
ting  himself  short  in  hollow  cough,  so  as  not  to  give 
up  the  word.  "  He  would  have  us  withdraw  from  the 
world,  as  if,  where  any  man  was,  the  world  was  not 
there  in  the  midst  of  him !  " 

"  Poor  Tolstoi,"  said  Mr.  Kane,  going  up  and  shak 
ing  hands  with  the  others,  "  as  I  understand  it,  is  at 
present  able  only  to  rehearse  his  role,  because  his  fam 
ily  won't  consent  to  anything  else.  He's  sold  all  he 
has  in  order  to  give  to  the  poor,  but  his  wife  manages 
the  proceeds." 

"  It's  easy  enough  to  throw  ridicule  on  him,"  said 
the  gentleman  against  the  window,  who  now  stood  up. 

"/throw  no  ridicule  upon  him,"  said  the  tall,  gaunt 
man.  "  He  has  taught  me  at  least  this,  that  contempt 
is  of  the  devil  —  I  beg  your  pardon,  Kane  —  and  I 
appreciate  to  the  utmost  the  spiritual  grandeur  of  the 
man's  nature.  But  practically,  I  don't  follow  him. 
"We  shall  never  redeem  the  world  by  eschewing  it. 
Society  is  not  to  be  saved  by  self-outlawry.  The 
body  politic  is  to  be  healed  politically.  The  way  to 
have  the  golden  age  is  to  elect  it  by  the  Australian 
ballot.  The  people  must  vote  themselves  into  posses 
sion  of  their  own  business,  and  intrust  their  economic 
affairs  to  the  same  faculty  that  makes  war  and  peace, 
that  frames  laws,  and  that  does  justice.  What  I 
object  to  in  Tolstoi  is  his  utter  unpractically.  I  can 
not  forgive  any  man,  however  good  and^reat,  who 
does  not  measure  the  means  to  the  end.  jlf  there  is 
anything  in  my  own  life  that  I  can  regard  with  entire 


92  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

satisfaction  it  is  that  at  every  step  of  my  career  I  have 
invoked  the  light  of  common-sense.  Whatever  my 
enemies  may  say  against  me,  they  cannot  say  that  I 
have  not  instantly  abandoned  any  project  when  I  found 
it  unpractical.  I  abhor  dreamers  ;  they  have  no  place 
in  a  world  of  thinking  and  acting."  Ray  saw  Kane 
arching  his  eyebrows,  while  the  other  began  again  :  "  I 
tell  you  "  — 

"  I  want  to  introduce  my  young  friend  Mr.  Kay," 
Mr.  Kane  broke  in. 

The  old  man  took  Ray's  hand  between  two  hot 
palms,  and  said,  "Ah !  "  with  a  look  at  him  that  was 
benign,  if  somewhat  bewildered. 

"You  know  Mr.  Ray,  Chapley,"  Kane  pursued, 
transferring  him  to  the  other,  who  took  his  hand  in 
turn. 

"  Mr.  Ray  ? "  he  queried,  with  the  distress  of  the 
elderly  man  who  tries  to  remember. 

"  If  you  forget  your  authors  in  the  green  wood  so 
easily,  how  shall  it  be  with  them  in  the  dry  ?  "  Kane 
sighed ;  and  now  the  publisher  woke  up  to  Ray's 
identity. 

"Oh,  yes,  yes,  yes!  Of  course!  Mr.  Ray,  of  — 
of  — Mr.  Ray,  of"  — 

"  Midland,"  Ray  suggested,  perspiring. 

"  Why,  certainly !  "  Mr.  Chapley  pressed  his  hand 
with  as  much  apologetic  entreaty  as  he  could  intimate 
in  that  way,  and  assured  him  that  he  was  glad  to  see 
him ;  and  then  he  said  to  the  old  man,  whose  name 
Kane  had  not  mentioned  to  Ray  in  presenting  him,  but 


THE    AVORLD    OF    CHANCE.  93 

whom  Ray  knew  to  be  Hughes,  "  Well,  I  must  be  go 
ing  now.  I'm  glad  to  find  you  looking  so  much  bet 
ter  this  morning." 

"  Oh ;  I'm  quite  a  new  man  —  quite  a  new  man  !  " 

"You  were  always  that!  "  said  Mr.  Chapley,  with  a 
certain  fondness.  He  sighed,  "  I  wish  I  knew  your 
secret." 

"  Stay,  and  let  him  expound  it  to  us  all !  "  Kane 
suggested.  "  I've  no  doubt  he  would." 

"  No  ;  I  must  be  going,"  said  Mr.  Chapley.  "  Good- 
by."  He  shook  hands  with  the  old  man.  "  Good-by, 
Kane.  Er  —  good-morning,  Mr.  —  er  —  Ray.  You 
must  drop  in  and  see  us,  when  you  can  find  time." 

Ray  bubbled  after  him  some  incoherencies  about  be 
ing  afraid  he  could  find  only  too  much  time.  Appar 
ently  Mr.  Chapley  did  not  hear.  He  pottered  out  on 
the  landing,  and  Ray  heard  him  feeling  his  way  care 
fully  down  stairs.  It  was  an  immense  relief  for  him 
to  have  met  Mr.  Chapley  there.  It  stamped  his  own 
presence  in  the  place  with  propriety ;  he  was  fond  of 
adventure  and  hungry  for  experience,  but  he  wished 
all  his  adventures  and  experiences  to  be  respectable. 
He  had  a  young  dread  of  queerness  and  irregularity ; 
and  he  could  not  conceal  from  himself  that  but  for  Mr. 
Chapley  his  present  environment  was  not  in  keeping 
with  his  smooth  Philistine  traditions.  He  had  never 
been  in  an  apartment  before,  much  less  a  mere  tene 
ment  ;  at  Midland  every  one  he  knew  lived  in  his  own 
house  ;  most  of  the  people  he  knew  lived  in  handsome 


94  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

houses  of  their  own,  with  large  grass-plots  and  shade- 
trees  about  them.  But  if  Mr.  Chapley  were  here, 
with  this  old  man  who  called  him  by  his  first  name, 
and  with  whom  he  and  Mr.  Kane  seemed  to  have 
the  past  if  not  the  present  in  common,  it  must  be  all 
right. 


XIV. 

RAY  woke  from  his  rapid  mental  formulation  of  this 
comforting  reassurance  to  find  the  old  man  saying  to 
him,  "  What  is  the  nature  of  the  work  that  Chapley 
has  published  for  you  ?  I  hope  something  by  which 
you  intend  to  advance  others,  as  well  as  yourself: 
something  that  is  to  be  not  merely  the  means  of  your 
personal  aggrandizement  in  fame  and  fortune.  Noth 
ing,  in  my  getting  back  to  the  world,  strikes  me  as 
more  shamelessly  selfish  than  the  ordinary  literary 
career.  I  don't  wonder  the  art  has  sunk  so  low  ;  its 
aims  are  on  the  business  level." 

Mr.  Kane  listened  with  an  air  of  being  greatly 
amused,  and  even  gratified,  and  Ray  thought  he  had 
purposely  let  the  old  man  go  on  as  if  he  were  an 
author  who  had  already  broken  the  shell.  Before  he 
could  think  of  some  answer  that  should  at  once  explain 
and  justify  him,  Kane  interposed: 

"  I  hope  Mr.  Ray  is  no  better  than  the  rest  of  us ; 
but  he  may  be  ;  you  must  make  your  arraignment  and 
condemnation  conditional,  at  any  rate.  He's  an  author 
in  petto,  as  yet ;  Chapley  may  never  publish  him." 

"  Then  why,"  said  the  old  man,  irascibly,  u  did  you 
speak  of  him  as  you  did  to  Chapley?  It  was  mis 
leading." 

"  In  the  world  you've  come  back  to,  my  dear  friend/' 


96  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

said  Kane,  "  you'll  find  that  we  have  no  time  to  refine 
upon  the  facts.  We  can  only  sketch  the  situation  in 
large,  bold  outlines.  Perhaps  I  wished  to  give  Mr. 
Ray  a  hold  upon  Chapley  by  my  premature  recognition 
of  him  as  an  author,  and  make  the  wicked  publisher 
feel  that  there  was  already  a  wide  general  impatience 
to  see  Mr.  Ray's  book." 

"  That  would  have  been  very  corrupt,  Kane,"  said 
the  other.  "  But  I  owe  Mr.  Ray  an  apology." 

Ray  found  his  tongue.  "  Perhaps  you  won't  think 
so  when  you  see  my  novel." 

"  A  novel !  Oh,  I  have  no  time  to  read  novels  !  " 
the  old  man  burst  out.  "  A  practical  inan  "  — 

"  Nor  volumes  of  essays,"  said  Kane,  picking  up  a 
book  from  the  table  at  his  elbow.  "  Really,  as  a 
measure  of  self-defence,  I  must  have  the  leaves  of  my 
presentation  copies  cut,  at  any  rate.  I  must  sacrifice 
my  taste  to  my  vanity.  Then  I  sha'n't  know  when 
the  grateful  recipients  haven't  opened  them." 

"  'e  no  time  to  read  books  of  any  kind  "  —  the  old 
man  "  gan  again. 

"  ,4.ou  ought  to  set  up  reviewer,"  Kane  interposed 
again. 

"  Oh,  I've  looked  into  your  essays,  Kane,  here  and 
there.  The  literature  is  of  a  piece  with  the  affectation 
of  the  uncut  .dges :  something  utterly  outdated  and 
superseded.  It's  all  as  impej  t  as  the  demand  you 
make  that  the  reader  should  do  the  work  of  a  book 
binder,  and  cut  your  leaves." 

"Do  you  know  that  I'm  re' Uy  hurt  —  not  for  my- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  97 

self,  but  for  you! — by  what  you  say  of  my  uncut 
edges  ?  You  descend  to  the  level  of  a  Brandreth," 
said  Kane. 

"  A  Brandreth  ?     What  is  a  Brandreth  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  publisher :  Chapley's  son-in-law  and  part 
ner." 

"  Oh,  yes,  yes,"  said  Hughes. 

UI  spent  many  hours,"  said  Kane,  plaintively, 
"  pleading  with  him  for  an  edition  with  uncut  edges. 
He  contended  that  the  public  would  not  buy  it  if  the 
edges  were  not  cut ;  and  I  told  him  that  I  wished  to 
have  that  fact  to  fall  back  upon,  in  case  they  didn't 
buy  it  for  some  other  reason.  And  I  was  right.  The 
edition  hasn't  sold,  and  the  uncut  edges  have  saved  me 
great  suffering  until  now.  Why  not  have  confined 
your  own  remarks,  my  dear  friend,  to  the  uncut  edges  ? 
I  might  have  agreed  with  you." 

"  Because "  said  the  old  man,  "  I  cannot  haw 
patience  with  a  man  of  your  age  who  takes  the' mere 

dilettante  view  of   life  —  who    regards    the  wofw  as 

&  r 

something  to  be  curiously  inspected  and  neatly-' com 
mented,  instead  of  toiled  for,  sweated  for,  suffered  for  ! " 
*Tlt  appears  to  me  that  there  is  toiling  and  sweating 
and  suffering  enough  for  the  world  already,"  said 
Kane,  with  a  perverse  levity.  "  Look  at  the  poor 
millionnaires,  struggling  to  keep  their ''employes  in 
work !  If  you've  come  *J'ick  to  the  world  for  no  bet- 
'  ter  purpose  than  to  add  to  'its  perseverance  and  per 
spiration,  I  could  wish  for  your  own  sake  that  you  had 
remained  in  some  of  jR*ur  communities  —  or  all  of 
them,  for  that  matter." 


98  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

The  other  turned  half  round  in  his  chair,  and  looked 
hard  into  Kane's  smiling  face.  "  You  are  a  most  un- 
serious  spirit,  Kane,  and  you  always  were!  When 
will  you  begin  to  be  different?  Do  you  expect  to 
continue  a  mere  frivolous  maker  of  phrases  to  the 
last?  Your  whole  book  there  is  just  a  bundle  of 
phrases  —  labels  for  things.  Do  you  ever  intend  to  be 
anything  ?  " 

"  I  intend  to  be  an  angel,  some  time  —  or  some  eter 
nity,"  said  Kane.  "  But,  in  the  meanwhile,  have  you 
ever  considered  that  perhaps  you  are  demanding,  in 
your  hopes  of  what  you  call  the  redemption  of  the 
race  from  selfishness,  as  sheer  and  mere  an  impossibil 
ity  as  a  change  of  the  physical  basis  of  the  soul  ?  " 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"I  mean  —  or,  I  won't  put  it  affirmatively;  I  will 
put  it  interrogatively." 

"  Yes,  that  was  always  your  way !  " 

"  I  will  merely  ask  you,"  Kane  went  on,  without 
heeding  the  interruption,  "  what  reason  you  have  to 
suppose  the  altruistic  is  not  eternally  conditioned  in 
the  egoistic,  just  as  the  spiritual  is  conditioned  in  the 
animal  ?  " 

"What  jargon  is  that?"  demanded  the  old  man, 
throwing  one  leg  over  the  other,  and  .smoothing  the 
upper  one  down  with  his  hand,  as  he  bent  forward  to 
glower  at  Kane. 

"  It  is  the  harmony  of  the  spheres,  my  dear  David ; 
it  is  a  metaphysical  variation  of  the  pleasing  air  that 
the  morning  stars  sang  together ;  it  is  the  very  truth. 


THE    WOULD    OF    CHANCE.  99 

The  altruistic  can  no  more  shake  off  the  egoistic  in 

this  world  than  the  spiritual  can  shake  off  the  animal. 

•As  soon  as  man  ceases  to  get  hungry  three  times  a 

day,  just  so  soon  will  he  cease  to  eat  his  fellow-man." 

"  There  is  the  usual  trivial  truth  in  what  you  say," 
Hughes  replied,  "  and  the  usual  serious  impiety.  You 
probably  are  not  aware  that  your  miserable  paradox 
accuses  the  Creative  Intelligence." 

"  Ah,  but  use  another  word !  Say  Nature,  and  then 
where  is  the  impiety  ?  " 

"But  I  decline  to  use  the  other  word,"  Hughes 
retorted. 

"  And  I  insist  upon  it ;  I  must.  It  is  Nature  that  I 
accuse ;  not  the  divine  nature,  or  even  human  nature, 
but  brute  nature,  that  commits  a  million  blunders,  and 
destroys  myriads  of  types,  in  order  to  arrive  at  such  an 
imperfect  creature  as  man  still  physically  is,  after  un 
told  ages  of  her  blind  empiricism.  If  the  human 
intelligence  could  be  put  in  possession  of  the  human 
body,  we  should  have  altruism  at  once.  We  should 
not  get  hungry  three  times  a  day  ;  instead  of  the  crude 
digestive  apparatus  which  we  have  inherited  with 
apparently  no  change  whatever  from  the  cave-dweller, 
we  should  have  an  organ  delicately  adjusted  to  the  ex 
igencies  of  modern  life,  and  responsive  to  all  the  emo 
tions  of  philanthropy.  But  no !  The  stomach  of  the 
nineteenth  century  remains  helplessly  in  the  keeping 
of  primeval  nature,  who  is  a  mere  Bourbon;  who 
learns  nothing  and  forgets  nothing.  She  obliges  us  to 
struggle  on  with  a  rude  arrangement  developed  from 


100  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

the  mollusk,  and  adapted  at  best  to  the  conditions  of 

the  savage ;  imperative  and   imperfect ;   liable  to  get 

out  6T~order  with  the  carefulest  management,  and  to 

j^give  way  altogether  with  the  use  of  half  a  lifetime. 

I  No,  David !       You  will  have  to  wait  until  man  has 

v/   come  into _conjxol-ef  his  gtoraaclu MSJOsIable. lo-bring 

his  ingenuity  to  bear  upon  its  deficiencies.     Then,  and 

not  till  then,  you  will  have  the  Altruistic  Man.     Until 

\  I  tnen  the  egoistic  man  will  continue  to  eat  his  brother, 

1  and   more  or   less  indigest  him  —  if  there  is  such   a 

^  verb." 

Ray  listened  with  one  ear  to  them.  The  other  \vas 
filled  with  the  soft  murmur  of  women's  voices  from 
the  further  end  of  the  little  apartment;  they  broke 
now  and  then  from  a  steady  flow  of  talk,  and  rippled 
into  laughter,  and  then  smoothed  themselves  to  talk 
again.  He  longed  to  know  what  they  were  talking 
about,  laughing  about. 

"No,  David,"  Kane  went  on,  "when  you  take  man 
out  of  the  clutches  of  Nature,  and  put  Nature  in  the 
keeping  of  man,  we  shall  have  the  millennium.  I 
have  nothing  to  say  against  the  millennium,  per  se,  ex 
cept  that  it  never  seems  to  have  been  on  time.  I  am 
willing  to  excuse  its  want  of  punctuality ;  there  may 
have  always  been  unavoidable  delays ;  but  you  can't 
expect  me  to  have  as  much  faith  in  it  as  if  it  had 
never  disappointed  people.  Now  with  you  I  admit  it's 
different.  You've  seen  it  come  a  great  many  times, 
and  go  even  oftener." 

"  Young  man  !  "  the  other  called  so  abruptly  to  Ray 


THE    WOULD    OF    CHANCE.  101 

that  it  made  him  start  in  his  chair,  "  I  wish  you  would 
step  out  into  the  room  yonder,  and  ask  one  of  my 
daughters  to  bring  me  my  whiskey  and  milk.  It's 
time  for  it,"  and  he  put  down  a  watch  which  he  had 
taken  from  the  table  beside  him. 

He  nodded  toward  a  sort  of  curtained  corridor  at 
one  side  of  the  room,  and  after  a  glance  of  question  at 
Kane,  who  answered  with  a  reassuring  smile,  Ray 
went  out  through  this  passage.  The  voices  had  sud- 
dently  fallen  silent,  but  he  found  their  owners  in  the 
little  room  beyond;  they  were  standing  before  their 
chairs  as  if  they  had  jumped  to  their  feet  in  a  feminine 
dismay  which  they  had  quelled.  In  one  he  made  out 
the  young  Mrs.  Denton,  whose  silhouette  had  received 
him  and  Kane ;  the  other  looked  like  her,  but  younger, 
j  and  in  the  two  Ray  recognized  the  heroines  of  the 
i  pocket-book  affair  on  the  train. 

He  trembled  a  little  inwardly,  but  he  said,  with  a 
bow  for  both :  "  I  beg  your  pardon.  Your  father 
wished  me  to  ask  you  for  his  "  — 

He  faltered  at  the  queerness  of  it  all,  but  the 
younger  said,  simply  arid  gravely  :  "  Oh,  yes,  I'll  take 
it  in.  I've  got  it  ready  here,"  and  she  took  up  a  tum 
bler  from  the  hearth  of  the  cooking-stove  keeping 
itself  comfortable  at  one  side  of  a  little  kitchen  beyond 
the  room  where  they  were,  and  went  out  with  it. 

Ray  did  not  know  exactly  what  to  do,  or  rather  how 
he  should  do  what  he  wished.  He  hesitated,  and 
looked  at  Mrs.  Denton,  who  said,  "  Won't  you  sit 
down  —  if  it  isn't  too  hot  here  ?  " 


XV. 

"  OH,  it  isn't  at  all  hot,"  said  Ray,  and  in  fact  the 
air  was  blowing  freely  in  through  the  plants  at  the 
open  window.  Then  he  sat  down,  as  if  to  prove  that 
it  was  not  too  hot ;  there  was  no  other  reason  that  he 
could  have  given  for  staying,  instead  of  going  back  to 
Kane  and  her  father. 

"  We  can  keep  the  windows  open  on  this  side,"  said 
Mrs.  Denton,  "  but  the  elevated  makes  too  much  noise 
in  front.  When  we  came  here  first,  it  was  warm 
weather ;  it  was  stifling  when  we  shut  the  windows, 
and  when  we  opened  them,  it  seemed  as  if  the  trains 
would  drive  us  wild.  It  was  like  having  them  in  the 
same  room  with  us.  But  now  it's  a  little  cooler,  and 
we  don't  need  the  front  windows  open  ;  so  it's  very 
pleasant." 

Ray  said  it  was  delightful,  and  he  asked,  "  Then  you 
haven't  been  in  New  York  long  ?  " 

"  No  ;  only  since  the  beginning  of  September.  We 
thought  we  would  settle  in  New  Jersey  first,  and  we 
did  take  a  house  there,  in  the  country ;  but  it  was  too 
far  from  my  husband's  work,  and  so  we  moved  in. 
Father  wants  to  meet  people ;  he's  more  in  the  current 
here." 

As  she  talked,  Mrs.   Denton  had  a  way  of  looking 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  103 

down  at  her  apron,  and  smoothing  it  across  her  knees 
with  one  hand,  and  now  and  then  glancing  at  Ray  out 
of  the  corner  of  her  eye,  as  if  she  were  smiling  on 
the  further  side  of  her  face. 

"  We  went  out  there  a  little  while  ago  to  sell  off  the 
things  we  didn't  want  to  keep.  The  neighbors  took 
them."  She  began  to  laugh,  and  Ray  laughed,  too, 
when  she  said,  "We  found  they  had  taken  some  of 
them  before  we  got  there.  They  might  as  well  have 
taken  all,  they  paid  us  so  little  for  the  rest.  I  didn't 
suppose  there  would  be  such  a  difference  between  first 
hand  and  second-hand  things.  But  it  was  the  first 
time  we  had  ever  set  up  housekeeping  for  ourselves, 
and  we  had  to  make  mistakes.  We  had  always  lived 
in  a  community." 

She  looked  at  him  for  the  impression  of  this  fact, 
and  Ray  merely  said,  "  Yes  ;  Mr.  Kane  told  me  some 
thing  of  the  kind." 

"  It's  all  very  different  in  the  world.     I  don't  know 
whether  you've  ever  been  in  a  community  ?  " 
"  No,"  said  Ray. 

"Well,"  she  went  on,  "we've  had  to  get  used  to  all 
sorts  of  things  since  we  came  out  into  the  world.  The 
very  day  we  left  the  community,  I  heard  some  people 
in  the  seat  just  in  front  of  me,  in  the  car,  planning 
how  they  should  do  something  to  get  a  living;  it 
seemed  ridiculous  and  dreadful.  It  fairly  frightened 
me." 

Rav  was  struck  with  the  literary  value  of  the  fact. 
He  said :  "  I  suppose  it  would  be  startling  if  we  could 


> 


104  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

any  of  us  realize  it  for  the  first  time.     But  for  most  of 
us  there  never  is  any  first  time." 

/  Mrs.  Denton  said:  "No,  but  in  the  community  we 
never  had  to  think  how  we  should  get  things  to  eat 
and  wear,  any  more  than  how  we  should  get  air  to 
breathe.  You  know  father  believes  that  the  world  can 
be  made  like  the  Family,  in  that,  and  everybody  be 
/^sure  of  a  living,  if  he  is  willing  to  work." 

She  glanced  at  Ray  with  another  of  her  demure 
looks,  which  seemed  inquiries  both  as  to  his  knowledge 
of  the  facts  and  his  opinion  of  them. 

"  I  didn't  know  just  what  your  father's  ideas  were," 
he  said  ;  and  she  went  on  : 

"  Yes  ;  he  thinks  all  you've  got  to  do  is  to  have  pa 
tience.  But  it  seems  to  me  you've  got  to  have  money 
too,  or  you'll  starve  to  death  before  your  patience  gives 
out." 

Mrs.  Denton  laughed,  and  Ray  sat  looking  at  her 
with  a  curious  mixture  of  liking  and  misgiving:  he 
would  have  liked  to  laugh  with  her  from  the  poet  in 
him,  but  his  civic  man  could  not  approve  of  her  irre 
sponsibility.  In  her  quality  of  married  woman,  she 
was  naore  reprehensible  than  she  would  have  been  as  a 
girl ;  as  a  girl,  she  might  well  have  been  merely  funny. 
Still,  she  was  a  woman,  and  her  voice,  if  it  expressed 
an  irresponsible  nature,  was  sweet  to  hear.  She 
seemed  not  to  dislike  hearing  it  herself,  and  she  let  it 
run  lightly  on.  "  The  hardest  thing  for  us,  though, 
has  been  getting  used  to  money,  and  the  care,  of  it. 
It  seems  to  be  just  as  bad  with  a  little  as  a  great  deal 


THE    WOULD    OF    CHANCE.  105 

—  the  care  does  ;  and  you  have  to  be  thinking  about 
it  all  the  time ;  we  never  had  to  think  of  it  at  all  in 
the  Family.  Most  of  us  never  saw  it,  or  touched 
it ;  only  the  few  that  went  out  and  sold  and  bought 
things." 

"  That's  very  odd,"  said  Ray,  trying  the  notion  if  it 
would  not  work  somewhere  into  literature ;  at  the 
same  time  he  felt  the  charm  of  this  pretty  young 
woman,  and  wondered  why  her  sister  did  not  come 
back.  He  heard  her  talking  with  Kane  in  the  other 
room ;  now  and  then  her  voice,  gentle  and  clear  and 
somewhat  high,  was  lost  in  Kane's  laugh,  or  the  hoarse 
plunge  of  her  father's  bass. 

"  Yes,"  Mrs.  Denton  went  on,  "  I  think  I  feel  it 
more  than  my  husband  or  my  sister  does  ;  they  just 
have  to  earn  the  money,  but  I  have  to  take  care  of  it, 
and  see  how  far  I  can  make  it  go.  It's  perfectly  dis 
tracting  ;  and  sometimes  when  I  forget,  and  do  some 
thing  careless  !  "  She  let  an  impressive  silence  follow, 
and  Ray  laughed. 

"Yes,  that's  an  anxious  time  for  us,  even  if  we're 
brought  up  with  the  advantages  of  worldly  experi 
ence." 

"  Anxious  !  "  Mrs.  Denton  repeated  ;  and  her  tongue 
ran  on.  "  Why,  the  day  I  went  out  to  New  Jersey 
with  my  sister  to  settle  up  our  *  estate '  out  there,  we 
each  of  us  had  a  baby  to  carry  —  my  children  are 
twins,  and  we  couldn't  leave  them  here  with  father ; 
it  was  bad  enough  to  leave  him !  and  my  husband  was 
at  work ;  and  on  the  train  coming  home  I  forgot  and 


106  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

gave  the  twins  my  pocket-book  to  play  with  ;  and  just 
then  a  kind  old  gentleman  put  up  the  car  window  for 
me,  and  the  first  thing  I  knew  they  threw  it  out  into 
the  water — we  were  crossing  that  piece  of  water  before 
you  get  to  Jersey  City.  It  had  every  cent  of  my 
money  in  it ;  and  I  was  so  scared  when  they  threw 
my  pocket-book  away  —  we  always  say  they,  because 
they're  so  much  alike  we  never  can  remember  which 
did  a  thing  —  I  was  so  scared  that  I  didn't  know  what 
I  was  doing,  and  I  just  screamed  out  all  about  it." 
Ray  listened  restively ;  he  felt  as  if  he  were  eaves 
dropping  ;  but  he  did  not  know  quite  how,  or  when,  or 
whether,  after  all,  to  tell  her  that  he  had  witnessed  the 
whole  affair ;  he  decided  that  he  had  better  not ;  and 
she  went  on  :  "  My  sister  said  it  was  just  as  if  I  had 
begged  of  the  whole  earful ;  and  I  suppose  it  was.  I 
don't  suppose  that  a  person  who  was  more  used  to 
money  would  have  given  it  to  a  baby  to  play  with." 

She  stopped,  and  Ray  suddenly  changed  his  mind  ; 
he  thought  he  ought  not  to  let  her  go  on  as  if  he 
knew  nothing  about  it ;  that  was  hardly  fair. 

"  The  conductor,"  he  said,  "  appeared  to  think  any 
woman  would  have  done  it." 

Mrs.  Denton  laughed  out  her  delight.  "  It  was  you, 
then.  My  sister  was  sure  it  was,  as  soon  as  she  saw 
you  at  Mr.  Chapley's." 

"  At  Mr.  Chapley's  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  his  store.  That  is  where  she  works.  You 
didn't  see  her,  but  she  saw  you,"  said  Mrs.  Denton ; 
and  then  Ray  recalled  that  Mr.  Brandreth  had  sent  to 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  107 

a  Miss  Hughes  for  the  list  of  announcements  she  had 
given  him. 

"  We  saw  you  noticing  us  in  the  car,  and  we  saw 
you  talking  with  the  conductor.  Did  he  say  anything 
else  about  us  ?  "  she  asked,  significantly. 

"I  don't  know  exactly  what  you  mean,"  Ray  an 
swered,  a  little  consciousiy,  and  coloring  slightly. 

"  Why,"  Mrs.  Denton  began ;  but  she  stopped  at 
sight  of  her  sister,  who  came  in  with  the  empty  tum 
bler  in  her  hand,  and  set  it  down  in  the  room  beyond. 
"  Peace ! "  she  called  to  her,  and  the  girl  came  back 
reluctantly,  Ray  fancied.  He  had  remained  standing 
since  her  reappearance,  and  Mrs.  Denton  said,  intro 
ducing  them,  "  This  is  my  sister,  Mr.  Ray ; "  and  then 
she  cried  out  joyfully,  "  It  -was  Mr.  Ray ! "  while  he 
bowed  ceremoniously  to  the  girl,  who  showed  an  em 
barrassment  that  Mrs.  Denton  did  not  share.  "The 
conductor  told  him  that  any  woman  would  have  given 
her  baby  her  pocket-book  to  play  with ;  and  so  you 
see  I  wasn't  so  very  bad,  after  all.  But  when  one  of 
these  things  happens  to  me,  it  seems  as  if  the  world 
had  come  to  an  end ;  I  can't  get  over  it.  Then  we 
had  another  experience  !  One  of  the  passengers  that 
heard  me  say  all  our  money  was  in  that  pocket-book, 
gave  the  conductor  a  dollar  for  us,  to  pay  our  car-fares 
home.  We  had  to  take  it ;  we  couldn't  have  carried 
the  children  from  the  ferry  all  the  way  up  here ;  but  I 
never  knew  before  that  charity  hurt  so.  It  was  dread 
ful  !  " 

A  certain  note  made  itself  evident  in  her  voice  which 


108  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Ray  felt  as  an  appeal.  "  Why,  I  don't  think  you  need 
have  considered  it  as  charity.  It  was  what  might  have 
happened  to  any  lady  who  had  lost  her  purse." 

"  It  wasn't  like  that,"  Miss  Hughes  broke  in.  "  It 
would  have  been  offered  then  so  that  it  could  be  re 
turned.  We  were  to  blame  for  not  making  the  con 
ductor  say  who  gave  it.  But  we  were  so  confused !  " 

"  I  think  the  giver  was  to  blame  for  not  sending  his 
address  with  it.  But  perhaps  he  was  confused  too," 
said  Ray. 

"  The  conductor  told  us  it  was  a  lady,"  said  Mrs. 
Denton,  with  a  sudden  glance  upward  at  Ray. 

They  all  broke  into  a  laugh  together,  and  the  girl 
sprang  up  and  went  into  another  room.  She  came 
back  with  a  bank-note  in  her  hand,  which  she  held  out 
toward  Ray. 

He  did  not  offer  to  take  it.  "I  haven't  pleaded 
guilty  yet." 

"  No,"  said  Mrs.  Denton ;  "  but  we  know  you  did 
it.  Peace  always  thought  you  did ;  and  now  we've 
got  you  in  our  power,  and  you  must  take  it  back." 

"  But  you  didn't  use  it  all.  You  gave  a  quarter  to 
the  old  darkey  who  whistled.  You're  as  bad  as  I  am. 
You  do  charity,  too." 

"  No  ;  he  earned  his  quarter.  You  paid  him  some 
thing  yourself,"  said  the  girl. 

"  He  did  whistle  divinely,"  Ray  admitted.  "  How 
came  you  to  think  of  asking  him  to  change  your  bill  ? 
I  should  have  thought  you'd  have  given  it  all  to  him." 

They  had  a  childlike  joy  in  his  railery,  which  they 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  109 

laughed  simply  out.  "  We  did  want  to,"  Mrs.  Denton 
said ;  "but  we  didn't  know  how  we  could  get  home." 

"  I  don't  see  but  that  convicts  me."  Ray  put  out 
his  hand  as  if  to  take  the  note,  and  then  withdrew  it. 
"I  suppose  I  ought  to  take  it,"  he  began.  "But  if  I 
did,  I  should  just  spend  it  on  myself.  And  the  fact  is, 
I  had  saved  it  on  myself,  or  else,  perhaps,  I  shouldn't 
have  given  it  to  the  conductor  for  you."  He  told 
them  how  he  had  economized  on  his  journey,  and  they 
laughed  together  at  the  picture  he  gave  of  his  satisfac 
tion  in  his  self-denial. 

"  Oh,  I  know  that  good  feeling !  "  said  Mrs.  Denton. 

"  Yes,  but  you  can't  imagine  how  superior  I  felt 
when  I  handed  my  dollar  over  to  the  conductor.  Good 
is  no  name  for  it ;  and  I've  simply  gloated  over  my 
own  merit  ever  since.  Miss  Hughes,  you  must  keep 
that  dollar,  and  give  it  to  somebody  who  needs  it !  " 

This  was  not  so  novel  as  it  seemed  to  Ray ;  but  the 
sisters  glanced  at  each  other  as  if  struck  with  its  origi 
nality. 

Then  the  girl  looked  at  him  steadily  out  of  her 
serene  eyes  a  moment,  as  if  thinking  what  she  had 
better  do,  while  Mrs.  Denton  cooed  her  pleasure  in  the 
situation. 

"  I  knew  just  as  well,  when  the  conductor  said  it 
was  a  lady  passenger  sent  it !  He  said  it  like  a  sort  of 
after-thought,  you  know  ;  he  turned  back  to  say  it  just 
after  he  left  us." 

"  Well,  I  will  do  that,"  said  the  girl  to  Ray ;  and 
she  carried  the  money  back  to  her  room. 


110  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Do  sit  down ! "  said  Mrs.  Den  ton  to  Ray  when 
she  came  back.  The  community  of  experience,  and 
the  wonder  of  the  whole  adventure,  launched  them  in 
definitely  forward  towards  intimacy  in  their  acquain 
tance.  "We  were  awfully  excited  when  my  sister 
came  home  and  said  she  had  seen  you  at  Mr.  Chap- 
ley's."  Her  sister  did  not  deny  it ;  but  when  Mrs. 
Denton  added  the  question,  "  Are  you  an  author  ? " 
she  protested  —  "  Jenny  !  " 

"  I  wish  I  were,"  said  Ray  ;  "  but  I  can't  say  I  am, 
yet.  That  depends  upon  whether  Mr.  Chapley  takes 
my  book." 

He  ventured  to  be  so  frank  because  he  thought  Miss 
Hughes  probably  knew  already  that  he  had  offered  a 
manuscript ;  but  if  she  knew,  she  made  no  sign  of 
knowing,  and  Mrs.  Denton  said  : 

"  Mr:  Qhapley  gives  my  sister  all  the  books  he  pub 
lishes.  Isn't  jt  splendid?  And  he  lets  her  bring 
home  any  of  the  books  she  wants  to,  out  of  the  store. 
Are  you  acquainted  in  his  family  ?  " 

"  No  ;  I  only  know  Mr.  Brandreth,  his  son-in-law." 

"My  sister  says  he's  very  nice.  Everybody  likes 
Mr.  Brandreth.  Mr.  Chapley  is  an  old  friend  of 
father's.  I  should  think  his  family  would  come  to  see 
us,  some  of  them.  But  they  haven't.  Mr.  Chaplev 
comes  ever  so  much." 

Ray  did  not  know  what  to  say  of  a  fact  which  Mrs. 
Denton  did  not  suffer  to  remain  last  in  his  mind.  She 
went  on,  as  if  it  immediately  followed. 

"  We  are  reading  Browning  now.     But  my  husband 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  Ill 

likes  Shelley  the  best  of  all.  Which  is  your  favorite 
poet  ?  " 

Ray  smiled.  "I  suppose  Shelley  ought  to  be.  I 
was  named  after  him."  When  he  had  said  this  he 
thought  it  rather  silly,  and  certainly  superfluous.  So 
he  added,  "  My  father  was  a  great  reader  of  him  when 
he  was  a  young  man,  and  I  got  the  benefit  of  his  taste, 
if  it's  a  benefit." 

"  Why,  do  you  hate  to  be  named  Shelley  ?  "  Mrs. 
Den  ton  asked. 

<;  Oh,  no ;  except  as  I  should  hate  to  be  named 
Shakespeare  ;  it  suggests  comparisons." 

"  Yes ;  but  it's  a  very  pretty  name."  As  if  it 
recalled  him,  she  said,  "My  husband  was  just  going 
out  with  the  twins  when  you  came  in  with  Mr.  Kane. 
He  was  taking  them  over  to  the  Park.  Do  you  like 
cats  ?  "  She  leaned  over  and  lugged  up  into  her  lap  a 
huge  Maltese  from  the  further  side  of  her.  "  My  sis 
ter  doesn't  because  they  eat  sparrows."  She  passed 
her  hand  slowly  down  the  cat's  smooth  flank,  which 
snapped  electrically,  while  the  cat  shut  its  eyes  to  a 
line  of  gray  light. 

"  If  your  cat's  fond  of  sparrows,  he  ought  to  come 
and  live  with  me,"  said  Ray.  "  I've  got  a  whole  col 
ony  of  them  outside  of  my  dormer-window." 

Mrs.  Denton  lifted  the  cat's  head  and  rubbed  her 
cheek  on  it.  "  Oh,  we've  got  plenty  of  sparrows  here, 
too.  Where  do  you  live  ?  Down  town  ?  Mr.  Kane 
does." 

Ray  gave  a  picturesque  account  of  his  foreign  hotel ; 

8 


112  THE    WOULD    OF    CHANCE. 

» 

i   but   he   had   an  impression   that   its  strangeness  was 

:    thrown  away  upon  his  hearers,  who  seemed  like  chil- 

\  dren  in  their  contact  with    the  world ;   it  was  all  so 

strange    that   nothing  was    stranger    than  another   to 

them.     They    thought  what   he  told    them  of  life  in 

Midland  as  queer  as  life  in  New  York. 

The  talk  went  on  without  sequence  or  direction, 
broken  with  abrupt  questions  and  droll  comments  ;  and 
they  laughed  a  good  deal.  They  spoke  of  poems  and 
of  dreams.  Ray  told  of  a  fragment  of  a  poem  he  had 
made  in  a  dream,  and  repeated  it;  they  thought  it 
was  fine,  or  at  least  Mrs.  Denton  said  she  did.  Her 
sister  did  not  talk  much,  but  she  listened,  and  now 
and  then  she  threw  in  a  word.  She  sat  against  the 
light,  and  her  face  was  in  shadow  to  Ray,  and  this 
deepened  his  sense  of  mystery  in  her ;  her  little  head, 
so  distinctly  outlined,  was  beautiful.  Her  voice,  which 
was  so  delicate  and  thin,  had  a  note  of  childish  inno 
cence  in  it.  Mrs.  Denton  cooed  deep  and  low.  She 
tried  to  make  her  sister  talk  more,  and  tell  this  and 
that.  The  girl  did  not  seem  afraid  or  shy,  but  only 
serious.  Several  times  they  got  back  to  books,  and  at 
one  of  these  times  it  appeared  that  she  knew  of  Ray's 
manuscript,  and  that  it  was  going  through  the  hands  of 
the  readers. 

"  And  what  is  the  name  of  your  story  ?  "  Mrs.  Den 
ton  asked,  and  before  he  could  tell  her  she  said,  "  Oh, 
yes ;  I  forgot,"  and  he  knew  that  they  must  have 
talked  of  it  together.  He  wondered  if  Miss  Hughes 
had  read  it.  "  Talking  of  names,"  Mrs.  Denton  went 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  113 

on,  "  I  think  my  sister's  got  the  queerest  one :  Peace. 
Isn't  it  a  curious  name  ?  " 

"  It's  a  beautiful  name,"  said  Ray.  "  The  Spanish 
give  it  a  great  deal,  I  believe." 

"  Do  they  ?  It  was  a  name  that  mother  liked ;  but 
she  had  never  heard  of  it,  although  there  were  so 
many  Faiths,  Hopes,  and  Charities.  She  died  just  a 
little  while  after  Peace  was  born,  and  father  gave  her 
the  name." 

Ray  was  too  young  to  feel  the  latent  pathos  of  the 
lightly  treated  fact.  "  It's  a  beautiful  name,"  he  said 
again. 

"Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  "and  it's  so  short  you 
can't  nick  it.  There  can't  be  anything  shorter  than 
Peace,  can  there  ?  " 

"  Truce,"  Ray  suggested,  and  this  made  them  laugh. 

The  young  girl  rose  and  went  to  the  window,  and 
began  looking  over  the  plants  in  the  pots  there.  Ray 
made  bold  to  go  and  join  her. 

"Are  you  fond  of  flowers?"  she  asked  gently,  and 
with  a  seriousness  as  if  she  really  expected  him  to  say 
truly. 

"  I  don't  know.  I've  never  thought,"  he  answered, 
thinking  how  pretty  she  was,  now  he  had  her  face 
where  he  could  see  it  fully.  Her  hair  was  of  the  in 
definite  blonde  tending  to  brown,  which  most  people's 
hair  is  of ;  her  sensitive  face  was  cast  in  the  American 
mould  that  gives  us  such  a  high  average  of  good  looks 
in  our  women  ;  her  eyes  were  angelically  innocent. 
When  she  laughed,  her  lip  caught  on  her  upper  teeth, 


114  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

and  clung  there  ;  one  of  the  teeth  was  slightly  broken  ; 
and  both  these  little  facts  fascinated  Ray.  She  did 
not  laugh  so  much  as  Mrs.  Den  ton,  whose  talk  she  let 
run  on  with  a  sufferance  like  that  of  an  older  person, 
though  she  was  the  younger.  She  and  Ray  stood 
awhile  there  playing  the  game  of  words  in  which 
youth  hides  itself  from  its  kind,  and  which  bears  no 
relation  to  what  it  is  feeling.  The  charm  of  being  in 
the  presence  of  a  lovely  and  intelligent  girl  enfolded 
Ray  like  a  caressing  atmosphere,  and  healed  him  of  all 
the  hurts  of  homesickness,  of  solitude.  Their  talk 
was  intensely  personal,  because  youth  is  personal,  and 
they  were  young ;  they  thought  that  it  dealt  with  the 
different  matters  of  taste  they  touched  on,  but  it 
really  dealt  with  themselves,  and  not  their  preferences 
in  literature,  in  flowers,  in  cats,  in  dress,  in  country 
and  city.  Ray  was  aware  that  they  were  discussing 
these  things  in  a  place  very  different  from  the  parlors 
where  he  used  to  enjoy  young  ladies'  society  in  Mid 
land  ;  it  was  all  far  from  the  Midland  expectation  of 
his  career  in  New  York  society.  He  recalled  how, 
before  the  'days  of  his  social  splendor  in  Midland,  he 
had  often  sat  and  watched  his  own  mother  and  sisters 
about  their  household  work,  which  they  did  for  them 
selves,  while  they  debated  the  hopes  and  projects  of  his 
future,  or  let  their  hearts  out  in  jest  and  laughter. 
Afterwards,  he  would  not  have  liked  to  have  this 
known  among  the  fashionable  people  in  Midland,  with 
whom  he  wished  to  be  so  perfectly  comme  ilfaut, 
From  time  to  time  Mrs.  Den  ton  dropped  the  cat  out 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  115 

of  her  lap,  and  ran  out  to  pull  the  wire  which  operated 
the  latch  of  the  street  door ;  and  then  Ray  heard  her 
greeting  some  comer  and  showing  him  into  the  front 
room,  where  presently  he  heard  him  greeting  her 
father.  At  last  there  was  a  sound  below  as  of  some 
one  letting  himself  in  with  a  latch-key,  and  then  came 
the  noises  of  the  perambulator  wheels  bumping  from 
step  to  step  as  it  was  pulled  up.  Mrs.  Denton  sat  still, 
and  kept  on  talking  to  Ray,  but  her  sister  went  out  to 
help  her  husband  ;  and  reappeared  with  a  sleeping  twin 
in  her  arms,  and  carried  it  into  the  room  adjoining. 
The  husband,  with  his  pale  face  flushed  from  his  strug 
gle  with  the  perambulator,  came  in  with  the  other,  and 
when  he  emerged  from  the  next  room  again,  Mrs. 
Denton  introduced  him  to  Ray. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  he  said ;  "  I  saw  you  with  Mr.  Kane." 
He  sat  down  a  moment  at  the  other  window,  and  put 
his  bare  head  out  for  the  air.  "  It  has  grown  warm," 
he  said. 

"  Was  the  Park  very  full  ?  "  his  wife  asked. 

"  Crowded.  It's  one  of  their  last  chances  for  the 
year." 

"  I  suppose  it  made  you  homesick." 

"  Horribly,"  said  the  husband,  with  his  head  still 
half  out  of  the  window.  He  took  it  in,  and  listened 
with  the  tolerance  of  a  husband  while  she  explained 
him  to  Ray. 

<  "My  husband's  so  homesick  for  the  old  Family 
place  —  it  was  a  pretty  place!  —  that  he  almost  dies 
when  he  goes  into  the  Park ;  it  brings  it  all  back  so. 
Are  you  homesick,  too,  Mr.  Ray  ?  " 


116  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"Well,  not  exactly  for  the  country,"  said  Eay 
"  I've  been  homesick  for  the  place  1  came  from  —  for 
Midland,  that  is." 

"  Midland  ?  "  Denton  repeated.  "  I've  been  there. 
I  think  those  small  cities  are  more  deadly  than  New 
York.  They're  still  trying  to  get  rid  of  the  country, 
and  New  York  is  trying  to  get  some  of  it  back.  If  I 
had  my  way,  there  wouldn't  be  a  city,  big  or  little,  on 
the  whole  continent."  He  did  not  wait  for  any  reply 
from  Ray,  but  he  asked  his  wife,  "  Who's  come  ?  " 

She  mentioned  a  number  of  names,  ten  or  twelve, 
and  he  said,  "  We'd  better  go  in,"  and  without  further 
parley  he  turned  toward  the  curtained  avenue  to  the 
front  room. 


XVI. 

IN  the  front  room  the  little  assemblage  had  the 
effect  of  some  small  religious  sect.  The  people  were 
plainly  dressed  in  a  sort  of  keeping  with  their  serious 
faces ;  there  was  one  girl  who  had  no  sign  of  a  ribbon 
or  lace  about  her,  and  looked  like  a  rather  athletic 
boy  in  her  short  hair  and  black  felt  hat,  and  her  jacket 
buttoned  to  her  throat.  She  sat  with  her  hands  in  the 
side  pockets  of  her  coat,  and  her  feet  pushed  out 
beyond  the  hem  of  her  skirt.  There  were  several  men 
of  a  foreign  type,  with  beards  pointed  and  parted ;  an 
American,  who  looked  like  a  school-master,  and  whose 
mouth  worked  up  into  his  cheek  at  one  side  with  a  sort 
of  mechanical  smile  when  he  talked,  sat  near  a  man 
who  was  so  bald  as  not  to  have  even  a  spear  of  hair 
anywhere  on  his  head.  The  rest  were  people  who 
took  a  color  of  oddity  from  these  types  ;  a  second 
glance  showed  them  to  be  of  the  average  humanity ; 
and  their  dress  and  its  fashion  showed  them  to  be  of 
simple  condition.  They  were  attired  with  a  Sunday 
consciousness  and  cleanliness,  though  one  gentleman, 
whose  coat  sleeves  and  seams  were  brilliant  with  long 
use,  looked  as  if  he  would  be  the  better  for  a  little 
benzining,  where  his  moustache  had  dropped  soup  and 
coffee  on  his  waistcoat ;  he  had  prominent  eyes,  with 
a  straining,  near-sighted  look. 


118  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Kane  sat  among  them  with  an  air  at  once  alert  and 
aloof;  his  arms  were  folded,  and  he  glanced  around 
from  one  to  another  with  grave  interest.  They  were 
all  listening,  when  Ray  came  in,  to  a  young  man  who 
was  upholding  the  single-tax  theory,  with  confidence 
and  with  eagerness,  as  something  which,  in  its  opera 
tion,  would  release  the  individual  energies  to  free 
play  and  to  real  competition.  Hughes  broke  in  upon 
him: 

"  That  is  precisely  what  I  object  to  in  your  theory. 
I  don't  want  that  devil  released.  Competition  is  the 
Afreet  that  the  forces  of  civilization  have  bottled  up 
after  a  desperate  struggle,  and  he  is  always  making 
fine  promises  of  what  he  will  do  for  you  if  you  will 
let  him  out.  The  fact  is  he  will  do  nothing  but  mis 
chief,  because  that  is  his  nature.  He  is  Beelzebub,  he 
is  Satan ;  in  the  Miltonic  fable  he  attempted  to  com 
pete  with  the  Almighty  for  the  rule  of  heaven ;  and 
the  fallen  angels  have  been  taking  the  consequence 
ever  since.  Monopoly  is  the  only  prosperity.  Where 
competition  is  there  can  be  finally  nothing  but  disaster 
and  defeat  for  one  side  or  another.  That  is  self-evi 
dent.  Nothing  succeeds  till  it  begins  to  be  a  monop 
oly.  This  holds  good  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
endeavor  —  from  the  commercial  to  the  aesthetic,  from 
the  huckster  to  the  artist.  As  long,  for  instance,  as  an 
author  is  young  and  poor  "  —  Ray  felt,  looking  down, 
that  the  speaker's  eye  turned  on  him  —  "  he  must  com 
pete,  and  his  work  must  be  deformed  by  the  struggle  ; 
when  it  becomes  known  that  he  alone  can  do  his  kind 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  119 

of  work,  he  monopolizes  and  prospers  in  the  full 
measure  of  his  powers ;  and  he  realizes  his  ideal  unre 
strictedly.  >  Competition  enslaves,  monopoly  liberates. 
We  must,  therefore,  have  the  greatest  possible  monop 
oly  ;  one  that  includes  the  whole  people  economically 
as  they  are  now  included  politically.  Try  to  think  of 
competition  in  the  political  administration  as  we  now 
'have  it  in  the  industrial.  It  isn't  thinkable  !  Or,  yes  ! 
1  They  do  have  it  in  those  Eastern  countries  where  the 
taxes  are  farmed  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  the  tax 
payer's  life  is  ground  out  of  him." 

"  I  think,"  said  the  school-masterly-looking  man, 
/'we  all  feel  this  instinctively.  The  trusts  and  the 
syndicates  are  doing  our  work  for  us  as  rapidly  as  we 
could  ask." 

A  voice,  with  a  German  heaviness  of  accent,  came 
,  from  one  of  the  foreigners.  "  But  they  are  not  doing 
it  for  our  sake,  and  they  mean  to  stop  distinctly  short 
of  the  whole-people  trust.  As  far  back  as  Louis 
Napoleon's  rise  we  were  expecting  the  growth  of  the 
corporate  industries  to  accomplish  our  purposes  for  us. 
But  between  the  corporation  and  the  collectivity  there 
is  a  gulf  —  a  chasm  that  has  never  yet  been  passed." 

"  We  must  bridge  it !  "  cried  Hughes. 

A  young  man,  with  a  clean-cut,  English  intonation, 
asked,  "  Why  not  fill  it  up  with  capitalists  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Hughes,  "  our  cause  should  recognize  no 
class  as  enemies." 

"  I  don't  think  it  matters  much  to  them  whether  we 
recognize  them  or  not,  if  we  let  them  have  their  own 


120  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

w'y?"  said  the  young  man,  whose  cockney  origin  be 
trayed  itself  in  an  occasional  vowel  and  aspirate. 

"  We  shall  not  let  them  have  their  own  way  unless 
it  is  the  way  of  the  majority,  too,"  Hughes  returned. 
"  From  my  point  of  view  they  are  simply  and  purely  a 
part  of  the  movement,  as  entirely  so  as  the  proletariat." 

"The  difficulty  will  be  to  get  them  to  take  your 
point  of  view,"  the  young  man  suggested. 

"It  isn't  necessary  they  should, "-Hughes  answered, 
"  though  some  of  them  do  already.  Several  of  the 
best  friends  of  our  cause  are  capitalists ;  and  there  are 
numbers  of  moneyed  people  who  believe  in  the  nation 
alization  of  the  telegraphs,  railroads,  and  expresses." 

"  Those  are  merely  the  first  steps,"  urged  the  young 
man,  "  which  may  lead  now'ere." 

"  They  are  the  first  steps,"  said  Hughes,  "  and  they 
are  not  to  be  taken  over  the  bodies  of  men.  We  must 
advance  together  as  brothers,  marching  abreast,  to  the 
music  of  our  own  heart-beats." 

"  Good !  "  said  Kane.  Ray  did  not  know  whether 
he  said  it  ironically  or  not.  It  made  the  short-haired 
girl  turn  round  and  look  at  him  where  he  sat  behind 
her. 

"We,  in  Russia,"  said  another  of  the  foreign-look 
ing  people,  "  have  seen  the  futility  of  violence.  The 
only  force  that  finally  prevails  is  love;  and  we  must 
employ  it  with  those  that  can  feeT  it  best  —  with  the 
little  children.  The  adult  world  is  hopeless  ;  but  with 
the  next  generation  we  may  do  something  —  every 
thing.  The  highest  office  is  the  teacher's,  but  we  must 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  121 

become  as  little  children  if  we  would  teach  them,  who 
are  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  We  must  begin  by 
learning  of  them." 

"It  appears  rather  complicated,"  said  the  young 
Englishman,  gayly ;  and  Ray  heard  Kane  choke  off  a 
laugh  into  a  kind  of  snort. 

"  Christ  said  He  came  to  call  sinners  to  repentance," 
said  the  man  who  would  have  been  the  better  for  ben 
zining.  "  He  evidently  thought  there  was  some  hope 
of  grown-up  people  if  they  would  cease  to  do  evil." 

"And  several  of  the  disciples  were  elderly  men," 
the  short-haired  girl  put  in. 

"  Our  Russian  friend's  idea  seems  to  be  a  version  of 
our  Indian  policy,"  said  Kane.  "  Good  adults,  dead 
adults." 

"No,  no.  You  don't  understand,  all  of  you,"  the 
Russian  began,  but  Hughes  interrupted  him. 

"  How  would  you  deal  with  the  children  ?  " 

"  In  communities  here,  at  the  heart  of  the  trouble, 
and  also  in  the  West,  where  they  could  be  easily  made 
self-supporting." 

f[  "  I  don't  believe  in  communities,"  said  Hughes.  "  If 
anything  in  the  world  has  thoroughly  failed,  it  is  com 
munities.  They  have  failed  all  the  more  lamentably 
when  they  have  succeeded  financially,  because  that 
sort  of  success  comes  from  competition  with  the  world 
outside.  A  community  is  an  aggrandized  individual ; 
it  is  the  extension  of  the  egoistic  motive  to  a  large 
family,  which  looks  out  for  its  own  good  against  other 
families,  just  as  a  small  family  does.  I  have  had 


122  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

i  enough  of  communities.  The  family  we  hope  to  found 
must  include  all  men  who  are  willing  to  work  ;  it  must 
recognize  no  aliens  except  the  drones,  and  the  drones 
must  not  be  suffered  to  continue.  They  must  either 
jcease  to  exist  by  going  to  work,  or  by  starving  to 
idea tli.  But  this  great  family  —  the  real  human  fam- 
(ily  —  must  be  no  agglutinated  structure,  no  mere  fed 
eration  of  trades-unions  ;  it  must  be  a  natural  growth 
from  indigenous  stocks,  which  will  gradually  displace 
individual  and  corporate  enterprises  by  pushing  its 
roots  and  its  branches  out  under  and  over  them,  till 
they  have  no  longer  earth  or  air  to  live  in.  It  will 
(then  slowly  possess  itself  of  the  whole  field  of  produc 
tion  and  distribution." 

u  yery  slowly,"  said  the  young  Englishman ;  and 
he  laughed. 

The  debate  went  on,  and  it  seemed  as  if  there  were 
almost  as  many  opinions  as  there  were  people  present. 
At  times  it  interested  Ray,  at  times  it  bored  him  ;  but 
at  all  times  he  kept  thinking  that  if  he  could  get  those 
queer  zealotsjnto  ji  book,  they  would  be  amusing  ma 
terial,  though  he  shuddered  to  find  himself  personally 
among  them.  Hughes  coughed  painfully  in  the  air 
thickened  with  many  breaths,,  and  the  windows  had  to 
be  opened  for  him  ;  then  the  rush  of  the  elevated  trains 
filled  the  room,  and  the  windows  were  shut  again.  Af 
ter  one  of  these  interludes,  Ray  wras  aware  of  Hughes 
appealing  to  some  one  in  the  same  tone  in  which  he 
had  asked  him  to  go  and  send  in  his  whiskey  and  milk  ; 
he  looked  up,  and  saw  that  Hughes  was  appealing  to 
him. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  123 

"  Young  man,  have  you  nothing  to  say  ou._aU-  these 
\  questions  ?  Is  it  possible  that  you  have  not  thought 
of  them?" 

Ray  was  so  startled  that  for  a  moment  he  could  not 
speak.  Then  he  said,  hardily,  but  in  the  frank  spirit 
of  the  discussion,  "  No,  I  have  never  thought  of  them 
at  alL^ 

"  It  is  time  you  did,"  said  Hughes.  "  All  other 
interests  must  yield  to  them.  We  can  have  no  true 
art,  no  real  literature,  no  science  worthy  the  name,  till 
the  money-stamp  of  egoism  is  effaced  from  success, 
and  it  is  honored,  not  paid." 

The  others  turned  and  stared  at  Ray  ;  old  Kane 
arched  his  eyebrows  at  him,  and  made  rings  of  white 
round  his  eyes ;  he  pursed  his  mouth  as  if  he  would 
like  to  laugh.  Ray  saw  Mrs  Denton  put  her  hand  on 
her  mouth  ;  her  husband  glowered  silently  ;  her  sister 
sat  with  downcast  eyes. 

Hughes  went  on :  "  I  find  it  easier  to  forgive  enmity 
than  indifference ;  he  who  is  not  for  us  is  against  us  in 
the  worst  sense.  Our  cause  has  a  sacred  claim  upon 
all  generous  and  enlightened  spirits ;  they  are  recreant 
if  they  neglect  it.  But  we  must  be  patient,  even  with 
indifference ;  it  is  hard  to  bear,  but  we  cannot  fight  it, 
and  we  must  bear  it.  Nothing  has  astonished  me 
more,  since  my  return  to  the  world,  than  to  find  the 
great  mass  of  men  living  on,  as  when  I  left  it,  in  be 
sotted  indifference  to  the  vital  interests  of  the  hour.  I 
find  the  politicians  still  talking  of  the  tariff,  just  as 
they  used  to  talk  ;  low  tariff  arid  cheap  clothes  for  the 


124  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

working-man  ;  high  tariff  and  large  wages  for  the  work 
ing-man.  Whether  we  have  high  tariff  or  low,  the 
working-man  always  wins.  But  he  does  not  seem  to 
prosper.  Pie  Is  poor ;  he  is  badly  fed  and  housed ; 
when  he  is  out  of  work  he  starves  in  his  den  till  he  is 
evicted  with  a  ruthlessness  unknown  in  the  history  of 
Irish  oppression.  Neither  party  means  to  do  anything 
for  the  working-man,  and  he  hasn't  risen  himselFyet 
to  the  conception  of  anything  more  philosophical  than 
more  pay  and  fewer  hours." 

A  sad-faced  man  spoke  from  a  corner  of  the  room. 
"We  must  have  time  to  think,  and  something  to  eat 
to-da}r.  We  can't  wait  till  to-morrow." 

"  That  is  true,"  Hughes  answered.  "  Many  must 
perish  by  the  way.  But  we  must  have  patience." 

His  son-in-law  spoke  up,  and  his  gloomy  face  dark 
ened.  "  I  have  no  heart  for  patience.  When  I  see 
people  perishing  by  the  way,  I  ask  myself  how  they 
shall  be  saved,  not  some  other  time,  but  now.  Some 
one  is  guilty  of  the  wrong  they  suffer.  How  shall  the 
sin  be  remitted  ?  "  His  voice  shook  with  fanatical  pas 
sion. 

"  We  must  have  patience,"  Hughes  repeated.  "  We 
are  all  guilty." 

"  It  woulcl  be  a  good  thing,"  said  the  man  with  a 
German  accent,  "  if  the  low-tariff  men  would  really  cut 
off  the  duties.  The  high-tariff  men  don't  put  wages 
up  because  they  have  protection,  but  they  would  surely 
put  them  down  if  they  didn't  have  it.  Then  you  would 
see  labor  troubles  everywhere." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE,  125 

"Yes,"  said  Hughes  ;  "but  such  hopes  as  that  would 
make  me  hate  the  cause,  if  anything  could.  Evil  that 
jgood  may  come  ?  Never !  Always  good,  and  good 
for  evil,  that  the  good  may  come  more  and  more !  We 
must  have  the  true  America  in  the  true  American  way, 
by  reasons,  by  votes,  by  laws,  and  not  otherwise." 

The  spirit  which  he  rebuked  had  unlocked  the  pas 
sions  of  those  around  him.  Ray  had  a  vision  of  them 
in  the  stormy  dispute  which  followed,  as  waves  beating 
and  dashing  upon  the  old  man ;  the  head  of  the  bald 
man  was  like  a  buoy  among  the  breakers,  as  it  turned 
and  bobbed  about,  in  his  eagerness  to  follow  all  that 
was  said. 

Suddenly  the  impulses  spent  themselves,  and  a  calm 
succeeded.  One  of  the  men  looked  at  his  watch ;  they 
all  rose  one  after  another  to  go. 

Hughes  held  them  a  little  longer.  "  I  don't  believe 
the  good  time  is  so  far  off  as  we  are  apt  to  think  in 
our  indignation  at  wrong.  It  is  coming  soon,  and  its 
mere  approach  will  bring  sensible  relief.  We  must 
have  courage  and  patience." 

Ray  and  Kane  went  away  together.  Mrs.  Den  ton 
looked  at  him  with  demure  question  in  her  eyes  when 
they  parted;  Peace  imparted  no  feeling  in  her  still 
glance.  Hughes  took  Ray's  little  hand  in  his  large, 
loose  grasp,  and  said  : 

"  Come  again,  young  man  ;  come  again  !  " 


XVII. 


"!F  ever  I  come  again,"  Ray  vowed  to  himself, 
when  he  got  into  the  street,  "I  think  I  shall  know 
it !  "  He  abhorred  all  sorts  of  social  outlandislmess  ; 
lie  had  always  wished  to  be  conformed,  without  and 
dthin,  to  the  great  world  of  smooth  respectabilities, 
[f  for  the  present  he  was  willing  to  Bohemianize  a 
little,  it  was  in  his  quality  of  author,  and  as  part  of  a 
world-old  tradition.  To  have  been  mixed  up  with  a 
lot  of  howling  dervishes  like  those  people  was  intoler 
able.  He  tingled  with  a  sense  of  personal  injury  from 
Hughes's  asking  him  to  take  part  in  their  discussion  ; 
and  he  was  all  the  angrier  because  he  could  not  resent 
it,  even  to  Kane,  on  account  of  that  young  girl,  who 
could  not  let  him  see  that  it  distressed  her,  too ;  he 
felt  bound  to  her  by  the  tie  of  favor  done  which  he 
must  not  allow  to  become  painful. 

He  knew,  as  they  walked  rapidly  down  the  avenue, 
crazy  with  the  trains  hurtling  by  over  the  jingling 
horse-cars  and  the  clattering  holiday  crowds,  that  old 
Kane  was  seeking  out  his  with  eyes  brimming  with 
laughter,  but  he  would  not  look  at  him,  and  he  would 
not  see  any  fun  in  the  affair.  He  would  not  speak, 
and  he  held  his  tongue  the  more  resolutely  because  he 
believed  Kane  meant  to  make  him  speak  first. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  127 

He  had  his  way ;  it  was  Kane  who  broke  the  silence, 
after  they  left  the  avenue  and  struck  into  one  of  the 
cross-streets  leading  to  the  Park.  Piles  of  lumber  and 
barrels  of  cement  blocked  two-thirds  of  its  space,  in 
front  of  half-built  houses,  which  yawned  upon  it  from 
cavernous  depths.  Boys  were  playing  over  the  boards 
and  barrels,  and  on  the  rocky  hill-side  behind  the 
houses,  where  a  portable  engine  stood  at  Sunday  rest, 
and  tall  derricks  rose  and  stretched  their  idle  arms 
abroad.  At  the  top  of  the  hill  a  row  of  brown-stone 
fronts  looked  serenely  down  upon  the  havoc  thrown 
up  by  the  blasting,  as  if  it  were  a  quiet  pleasance. 

"  Amiable  prospect,  isn't  it ? "  said  Kane.  "It looks 
as  if  Hughes's  Afreet  has  got  out  of  his  bottle,  and  had 
a  good  time  here,  holding  on  for  a  rise,  and  then  build 
ing  on  spec.  But  perhaps  we  oughtn't  to  judge  of  it 
at  this  stage,  when  everything  is  in  transition.  Think 
how  beautiful  it  will  be  when  it  is  all  solidly  built  up 
here  as  it  is  down-town  !  "  He  passed  his  hand  through 
Ray's  lax  arm,  and  leaned  affectionately  toward  him 
as  they  walked  on,  after  a  little  pause  he  made  for  this 
remark  on  the  scenery.  "  Well,  my  dear  young  friend, 
what  do  you  think  of  my  dear  old  friend  ?  " 

"  Of  Mr.  Hughes  ?  "  Ray  asked  ;  and  he  restrained 
himself  in  a  pretended  question. 

"  Of  Mr.  Hughes,  and  of  Mr.  Hughes's  friends." 

Ray  flashed  out  upon  this.  "  I  think  his  friends  are 
a  lot  of  cranks." 

"  Yes  ;  very  good  ;  very  excellent  good  !  They  are 
a  lot  of  cranks.  Are  they  the  first  you  have  met  in 

New  York?" 
9 


128  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  No ;  the  place  seems  to  be  full  of  them." 

"  Beginning  with  the  elderly  gentleman  whom  you 
met  the  first  morning  ?  " 

"  Beginning  with  the  young  man  who  met  the  elderly 
gentleman." 

Kane  smiled  with  appreciation.  "Well,  we  won't 
be  harsh  on  those  two.  We  won't  call  them  cranks. 
They  are  philosophical  observers,  or  inspired  dreamers, 
if  you  like.  As  I  understand  it,  we  are  all  dreamers. 
If  we  like  a  man's  dream,  we  call  him  a  prophet ;  if 
we  don't  like  his  dream,  we  call  him  a  crank.  Now, 
what  is  the  matter  with  the  dreams,  severally  and  col 
lectively,  of  my  dear  old  friend  and  his  friends  ?  Can 
you  deny  that  any  one  of  their  remedies,  if  taken  faith 
fully  according  to  the  directions  blown  on  the  bottle, 
would  cure  the  world  of  all  its  woes  inside  of  six 
months?" 

The  question  gave  Ray  a  chance  to  vent  his  vexa 
tion  impersonally.  "What  is  .the  matter  with  _  the 
world  ?  "  he  burst  out.  "  I  don't  see  that  the  world 
is  so  very  sick.  Why  isn't  it  going  on  very  well  ?  I 
1  don't  understand  what  this  talk  is  all  about.  I  don't 
see  what  those  people  have  got  to  complain  of.  All 
any  one  can  ask  is  a  fair  chance  to  show  how  much 
f  his  work  is  worth,  and  let  the  best  man  win.  What's 
1  the  trouble  ?  Where's  the  wrong  ?  " 

"  Ah,"  said  Kane,  "  what  a  pity  you  didn't  set  forth 
those  ideas  when  Hughes  called  upon  you !  " 

"And  have  all  that  crew  jump  cm  me?  Thank 
you !  "  said  Ray. 


• 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  129 

"  You  would  call  them  a  crew,  then  ?  Perhaps  they 
were  a  crew,"  said  Kane.  "  I  don't  know  why  a  re 
former  should  be  so  grotesque ;  but  he  is,  and  he  is 
always  the  easy  prey  of  caricature.  I  couldn't  help 
feeling  to-day  how  very  like  the  burlesque  reformers 
the  real  reformers  are.  And  they  are  always  the  same, 
from  generation  to  generation/^  For  all  outward  dif 
ference,  those  men  and  brethren  of  both  sexes  at  poor 
David's  were  very  like  a  group  of  old-time  abolitionists 
conscientiously  qualifying  themselves  for  tar  and  feath 
ers.  Perhaps  you  don't  like  being  spoken  to  in  meet- 
ing?" 

"  No,  I  don't,"  said  Ray,  bluntly. 

"  I  fancied  a  certain  reluctance  in  you  at  the  time, 
but  I  don't  think  poor  David  meant  any  harm.     He 
preaches  patience,  but  I  think  he  secretly  feels  that          » 
he's  got  to  hurry,  if  he's  going  to  have  the  kingdom  of         / 
heaven  on  earth  in  his  time ;  and  he  wants  every  one 
to  lend  a  hand." 

For  the  reason,  or  from  the  instinct,  that  forbade 
Ray  to  let  out  his  wrath  directly  against  Hughes,  he 
now  concealed  his  pity.  He  asked  stiffly  :  "  Couldn't 
he  be  got  into  some  better  place  ?  Where  he  wouldn't 
be  stunned  when  he  tried  to  keep  from  suffocating?  " 

"  No,  -I  don't  know  that  he  could,"  said  Kane,  with 
a  pensive  singleness  rare  in  him.  u  Any  help  of  that 
kind  would  mean  dependence,  and  David  Hughes  is 
proud." 

They  had  passed  through  lofty  ranks  of  flats,  and 
they  now  came  to  the  viaduct  carrying  the  northern 


130  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

railways  ;  one  of  its  noble  arches  opened  before  them 
like  a  city  gate,  and  the  viaduct  in  its  massy  extent 
was  like  a  wall  that  had  stood  a  hundred  sieges.  Be 
yond  they  found  open  fields,  with  the  old  farm  fences 
of  stone  still  enclosing  them,  but  with  the  cellars  of 
city  blocks  dug  out  of  the  lots.  In  one  place  there 
was  a  spread  of  low  sheds,  neighbored  by  towering 
apartment-houses  ;  some  old  cart-horses  were  cropping 
the  belated  grass  ;  and  comfortable  companies  of  hens 
and  groups  of  turkeys  were  picking  about  the  stable- 
yard  ;  a  shambling  cottage  fronted  on  the  avenue  next 
the  park,  and  drooped  behind  its  dusty,  leafless  vines. 

"He  might  be  got  into  that,"  said  Kane,  whimsi 
cally,  "  at  no  increase  of  rent,  and  at  much  increase  of 
comfort  and  quiet  —  at  least  till  the  Afreet  began  to 
get  in  his  work." 

"  Wouldn't  it  be  rather  too  much  like  that  eremitisin 
which  he's  so  down  on  ?  "  asked  Ray,  with  a  persistence 
in  his  effect  of  indifference. 

"  Perhaps  it  would,  perhaps  it  would,"  Kane  con 
sented,  as  they  struck  across  into  the  Park.  The  grass 
was  still  very  green,  though  here  and  there  a  little  sal 
low  ;  the  leaves,  which  had  dropped  from  the  trees  in 
the  October  rains,  had  lost  their  fire,  and  lay  dull  and 
brown  in  the  little  hollows  and  at  the  edges  of  the 
paths  and  the  bases  of  the  rocks  ;  the  oaks  kept  theirs, 
but  in  death ;  on  some  of  the  ash-trees  and  lindens  the 
leaves  hung  in  a  pale  reminiscence  of  their  summer 
green. 

"  I  understood  the  son-in-law  to  want  a  hermitage 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  131 

somewhere  —  a  co-operative  hermitage,  I  suppose," 
Ray  went  on.  He  did  not  feel  bound  to  spare  the 
son-in-law,  and  he  put  contempt  into  his  tone. 

"  Ah,  yes,"  said  Kane.  "  What  did  you  make  of 
the  son-in-law  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  He's  a  gloomy  sprite.  What  is 
he,  anyway  ?  His  wife  spoke  of  his  work." 

"  Why,  it's  rather  a  romantic  story,  I  believe,"  said 
Kane.  "  He  was  a  young  fellow  who  stopped  at  the 
community  on  his  way  to  a  place  where  he  was  going 
to  find  work;  he's  a  wood-engraver.  I  believe  he's 
always  had  the  notion  that  the  world  was  out  of  kilter, 
and  it  seems  that  he  wasn't  very  well  himself  when  he 
looked  in  on  the  Family  to  see  what  they  were  doing 
to  help  it.  He  fell  sick  on  their  hands,  and  the 
Hugheses  took  care  of  him.  Naturally,  he  married 
one  of  them  when  he  got  well  enough,  and  naturally 
he  married  the  wrong  one." 

"  Why  the  wrong  one  ? "  demanded  Ray,  with  an 
obscure  discomfort. 

"  Well,  I  don't  know !  But  if  it  isn't  evident  to  you 
that  Mrs.  Denton  is  hardly  fitted  to  be  the  guide, 
philosopher,  and  friend  of  such  a  man  "  — 

Ray  would  not  pursue  this  branch  of  the  inquiry. 
u  His  notion  of  what  the  world  wanted  was  to  have  its 
cities  eliminated.  Then  he  thought  it  would  be  all 
serene." 

"  Ah,  that  wouldn't  do,"  said  Kane.  **  Cities  are  a 
vice,  but  they  are  essential  to  us  now.  We  could  not 
live  without  them ;  perhaps  we  are  to  be  saved  by 


132  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

them.  But  it  is  well  to  return  to  Nature  from  time 
to  time." 

"I  thought  I  heard  you  saying  some  rather  dis 
paraging  things  of  Nature  a  little  while  ago,"  said 
Ray,  with  a  remaining  grudge  against  Kane,  and  with 
a  young  man's  willingness  to  convict  his  elder  of  any 
inconsistency,  serious  or  unserious. 

"  Oh,  primeval  Nature,  yes.  But  I  have  nothing 
but  praise  for  this  kind  —  the  kind  that  man  controls 
and  guides.  It  is  outlaw  Nature  that  I  object  to,  the 
savage  survival  from  chaos,  the  mother  of  earthquakes 
and  cyclones,  blizzards  and  untimely  frosts,  inunda 
tions  and  indigestions.  But  ordered  Nature  —  the 
Nature  of  the  rolling  year ;  night  and  day,  and  seed 
time  and  harvest "  — 

"  The  seasons,"  Ray  broke  in  scornfully,  from  the 
resentment  still  souring  in  his  soul,  "  turn  themselves 
upside  down  and  wrong  end  to,  about  as  often  as 
financial  panics  occur,  and  the  farmer  that  has  to  rely 
on  them  is  as  apt  to  get  left  as  the  husbandman  that 
sows  and  reaps  in  Wall  Street." 

"•  All !  "  sighed  Kane.  "  That  was  well  said.  I 
wish  I  had  thought  of  it  for  my  second  series  of  Hard 
Sayings" 

u  Oh,  you're  welcome  to  it !  " 

"  Are  you  so  rich  in  paradoxes  ?  But  I  will  con 
trive  to  credit  it  somehow  to  the  gifted  author  of  A 
New  Romeo.  Is  that  what  you  call  it  ?  " 

Ray  blushed  and  laughed,  and  Kane  continued : 

"  It's  a  little  beyond  the  fact,  but  it's  on  the  lines  of 


TilE    WORLD    OK    CHANCE.  133 

truth.  I  don't  justify  Nature  altogether.  She  is  not 
free  from  certain  little  foibles,  caprices  ;  perhaps  that's 
why  we  call  her  she.  But  I  don't  think  that,  with  all 
her  faults,  she's  quite  so  had  as  Business.  In  that  we 
seem  to  have  gone  to  Nature  for  her  defects.  Why 
copy  her  weakness  and  had  faith  ?  Why  not  study 
her  steadfastness,  her  orderliness,  her  obedience,  in 
laying  the  bases  of  civilization  ?  We  don't  go  to  her 
for  the  justification  of  murder,  incest,  robbery,  glut 
tony,  though  you  can  find  them  all  in  her.  We  have 
our  little  prejudice  against  these  things,  and  we  seem 
to  derive  it  from  somewhere  outside  of  what  we  call 
Nature.  Why  not  go  to  that  Somewhere  for  the  law 
of  economic  life  ?  But  come,"  Kane  broke  off,  gayly, 
"  let  us  babble  of  green  fields  ;  as  for  God,  God,  I  hope 
we  have  no  need  to  think  of  such  things  yet.  Please 
Heaven,  our  noses  are  not  as  sharp  as  pens,  by  a  long 
way.  I  don't  wonder  you  find  it  a  beautiful  and 
beneficent  world,  in  spite  of  our  friends  yonder,  who 
want  to  make  it  prettier  and  better,  in  their  way." 
Kane  put  his  arm  across  Ray's  shoulder,  and  pulled 
him  affectionately  towards  him.  "Are  you  vexed 
with  me  for  having  introduced  you  to  those  people  ?  I 
have  been  imagining  something  of  the  kind." 

"  Oh,  no  "  —  Ray  began. 

"  I  didn't  really  mean  to  stay  for  Hughes's  conven 
ticle,"  said  Kane.  "  Chapley  was  wise,  and  went  in 
time,  before  he  could  feel  the  wild  charm  of  those  vis 
ionaries  ;  it  was  too  much  for  me  ;  when  they  began 
to  come,  I  couldn't  go.  I  forgot  how  repugnant  the 


134  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

golden  age  has  always  been  to  the  heart  of  youth, 
which  likes  the  nineteenth  century  much  better.  The 
fact  is,  I  forgot  that  I  had  brought  you  till  it  was  too 
late  to  take  you  away." 

He  laughed,  and  Kay,  more  reluctantly,  laughed 
with  him. 

"I  have  often  wondered,"  he  went  on,  "  how  it  is 
we  lose  the  youthful  point  of  view.  We  have  it  some 
night,  and  the  next  morning  we  haven't  it ;  and  we 
can  hardly  remember  what  it  was.  I  don't  suppose 
you  could  tell  me  what  the  youthful  point  of  view  of 
the  present  day  is,  though  I  should  recognize  that  of 
forty  years  ago.  I  "  — 

He  broke  off  to  look  at  a  party  of  horsemen  pelting 
by  on  the  stretch  of  the  smooth  hard  road,  and  dash 
ing  into  a  bridle-path  beyond.  They  were  heavy 
young  fellows,  mounted  on  perfectly  groomed  trotters, 
whose  round  haunches  trembled  and  dimpled  with  their 
hard  pace. 

"  Perhaps  that  is  the  youthful  point  of  view  now : 
the  healthy,  the  wealthy,  the  physically  strong,  the 
materially  rich.  Well,  I  think  ours  was  better ;  pallid 
and  poor  in  person  and  in  purse  as  we  imagined  the 
condition  of  the  ideal  man  to  be.  There  is  some 
thing,"  said  Kane,  "  a  little  more  expressive  of  the 
insolence  of  money  in  one  of  those  brutes  than  in  the 
most  glittering  carriage  and  pair.  I  think  if  I  had  in 
me  the  material  for  really  hating  a  fellow-man,  I 
should  apply  it  to  the  detestation  of  the  rider  of  one 
of  those  animals.  But  I  haven't.  I  am  not  in  pro- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  135 

spective  need  even,  and  I  am  at  the  moment  no 
hungrier  than  a  gentleman  ought  to  be  who  is  going  to 
lunch  with  a  lady  in  the  Mandan  Flats.  By-the-way ! 
Why  shouldn't  you  come  with  me  ?  They  would  be 
delighted  to  see  you.  A  brilliant  young  widow,  with 
a  pretty  step-daughter,  is  not  to  be  lunched  with  every 
day,  and  I  can  answer  for  your  welcome." 

Ray  freed  himself.  "  I'm  sorry  I  can't  go.  But  I 
can't.  You  must  excuse  me  ;  I  really  couldn't ;  I  am 
very  much  obliged  to  you.  But "  — 

"  You  don't  trust  me !  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  do.  But  I  don't  feel  quite  up  to  meet 
ing  people  just  now ;  I'll  push  on  down  town.  I'm 
rather  tired.  Good-by." 

Kane  held  his  hand  between  both  his  palms.  "I 
wonder  what  the  real  reason  is!  Is  it  grudge,  or 
pride,  or  youth  ?  " 

"  Neither,"  said  Ray.  "It's  —  clothes.  My  boots 
are  muddy,  and  I've  got  on  my  second-best  trousers." 

"  Ah,  now  you  are  frank  with  me,  and  you  give  me 
a  real  reason.  Perhaps  you  are  right.  I  dare  say  I 
should  have  thought  so  once." 


XVIII. 

RAY  did  not  go  to  deliver  any  of  his  letters  that 
afternoon  ;  he  decided  now  that  it  would  be  out  of 
taste  to  do  so  on  Sunday,  as  he  had  already  doubted 
that  it  would  be,  in  the  morning.  lie  passed  the 
afternoon  in  his  room,  trying  from  time  to  time  to  re 
duce  the  turmoil  of  his  reveries  to  intelligible  terms  in 
verse,  and  in  poetic  prose.  He  did  nothing  with 
them ;  in  the  end,  though,  he  was  aware  of  a  new 
ideal,  and  he  resolved  that  if  he  could  get  his  story 
back  from  Chapley  &  Co.,  he  would  rewrite  the  pas 
sages  that  characterized  the  heroine,  and  make  it  less 
like  the  every-day,  simple  prettiness  of  his  first  love. 
He  had  always  known  that  this  did  not  suit  the 
character  he  had  imagined ;  he  now  saw  that  it  re 
quired  a  more  complex  and  mystical  charm.  But  he 
did  not  allow  himself  to  formulate  these  volitions  and 
perceptions,  any  more  than  his  conviction  that  he  had 
now  a  double  reason  for  keeping  away  from  Mr. 
Brandreth  and  from  Miss  Hughes.  lie  spent  the 
week  in  an  ecstasy  of  forbearance.  On  Saturday 
afternoon  he  feigned  the  necessity  of  going  to  ask  Mr. 
Brandreth  how  he  thought  a  novel  in  verse,  treating  a 
strictly  American  subject  in  a  fantastic  way,  would 
succeed.  He  really  wished  to  learn  something  without 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  137 

seeming  to  wish  it,  about  his  manuscript,  but  he  called 
so  late  in  the  afternoon  that  he  found  Mr.  Brandreth 
putting  his  desk  in  order  just  before  starting  home. 
He  professed  a  great  pleasure  at  sight  of  Ray,  and 
said  he  wished  he  would  come  part  of  the  way  home 
with  him ;  he  wanted  to  have  a  little  talk. 

As  if  the  wrord  home  had  roused  the  latent  forces  of 
hospitality  in  him,  he  added,  "  I  want  to  have  you  up 
at  my  place,  some  day,  as  soon  as  we  can  get  turned 
round.  Mrs.  Brandreth  is  doing  first-rate,  now ;  and 
that  boy  —  well,  sir,  he's  a  perfect  Titan.  I  wish  you 
could  see  him  undressed.  He's  just  like  the  figure  of 
the  infant  Hercules  strangling  the  serpent  when  he 
grips  the  nurse's  finger.  I  know  it  sounds  ridiculous, 
but  I  believe  that  fellow  recognizes  me,  and  dis 
tinguishes  between  me  and  his  mother.  I  suppose  it's 
my  hat  —  I  come  in  with  my  hat  on,  you  know,  just 
to  try  him ;  and  when  he  catches  sight  of  that  hat, 
you  ought  to  see  his  arms  go  !  " 

The  paternal  rhapsodies  continued  a  long  time  after 
they  were  in  the  street,  and  Ray  got  no  chance  to 
bring  in  either  his  real  or  pretended  business.  He 
listened  with  mechanical  smiles  and  hollow  laughter, 
alert  at  the  same  time  for  the  slightest  vantage  which 
Mr.  Brandreth  should  give  him.  But  the  publisher 
said  of  his  own  motion  : 

"  Oh,  by-the-way,  you'll  be  interested  to  know  that 
our  readers'  reports  on  your  story  are  in." 

"  Are  they  ?  "  Ray  gasped.  He  could  not  get  out 
any  more. 


138  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Mr.  Brandreth  went  on  :  "  I  didn't  examine  the  re 
ports  very  attentively  myself,  but  I  think  they  were 
favorable,  on  the  whole.  There  were  several  changes 
suggested :  I  don't  recall  just  what.  But  you  can  see 
them  all  on  Monday.  We  let  Miss  Hughes  go  after 
lunch  on  Saturdays,  and  she  generally  takes  some 
work  home  with  her,  and  I  gave  them  to  her  to  put  in 
shape  for  you.  I  thought  it  would  be  rather  instruc 
tive  for  you  to  see  the  different  opinions  in  the  right 
form.  I  believe  you  can't  have  too  much  method  in 
these  things." 

"  Of  course,"  said  Ray,  in  an  anguish  of  hope  and 
fear.  The  street  seemed  to  go  round  ;  he  hardly  knew 
where  he  was.  He  bungled  on  inarticulately  before  he 
could  say  :  "  I  believe  in  method,  too.  But  I'm  sorry  I 
couldn't  have  had  the  reports  to-day,  because  I  might 
have  had  Sunday  to  think  the  suggestions  over,  and 
see  what  I  could  do  with  them." 

"  Well,  I'm  sorry,  too.  She  hadn't  been  gone  half 
an  hour  when  you  came  in.  If  I'd  thought  of  your 
happening  in !  Well,  it  isn't  very  long  till  Monday ! 
She'll  have  them  ready  by  that  time.  I  make  it  a  rule 
myself  to  put  all  business  out  of  my  mind  from  2  P.  M. 
on  Saturday  till  Monday  9  A.  M.,  and  I  think  you'll 
find  it  an  advantage,  too.  I  won't  do  business,  and  I 
won't  talk  business,  and  I  won't  think  business  after 
two  o'clock  on  Saturday.  I  believe  in  making  Sun 
day  a  day  of  rest  and  family  enjoyment.  We  have  an 
early  dinner  ;  and  then  I  like  to  have  my  wife  read  or 
play  to  me,  and  now  we  have  in  the  baby,  and  that 
amu&es  us." 


THE    WORLD    OP    CHANCE.  139 

Ray  forced  himself  to  say  that  as  a  rule  he  did  not 
believe  in  working  on  Sunday  either ;  he  usually  wrote 
letters.  He  abruptly  asked  Mr.  Brandreth  how  he 
thought  it  would  do  for  him  to  go  and  ask  Miss  Hughes 
for  a  sight  of  the  readers'  reports  in  the  rough. 

Mr.  Brandreth  laughed.  "  You  are  anxious  !  Do 
you  know  where  she  lives  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes ;  I  stopped  there  last  Sunday  with  Mr. 
Kane  on  our  way  to  the  Park.  I  saw  Mr.  Chapley 
there." 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  with  the  effect  of  being 
arrested  by  the  last  fact  in  something  he  might  other 
wise  have  said.  It  seemed  to  make  him  rather  un 
happy.  "  Then  you  saw  Miss  Hughes's  father  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  and  all  his  friends,"  Ray  answered,  in  a  way 
that  evidently  encouraged  Mr.  Brandreth  to  go  on. 

"  Yes  ?     What  did  you  think  of  them  ?  " 

"  I  thought  they  were  mostly  harmless  ;  but  one  or 
two  of  them  ought  to  have  been  in  the  violent  wards." 

"  Did  Mr.  Chapley  meet  them  ?  " 

11  Oh,  no ;  he  went  away  before  any  of  them 
came  in.  As  Mr.  Kane  took  me,  I  had  to  stay  with 
him." 

Mr.  Brandreth  got  back  a  good  deal  of  his  smiling 
complacency,  which  had  left  him  at  Ray's  mention  of 
Mr.  Chapley  in  connection  with  Hughes.  "  Mr.  Chap- 
ley  and  Mr.  Hughes  are  old  friends." 

"  Yes  ;  I  understood  something  of  that  kind." 

"They  date  back  to  the  Brook  Farm  days  to 
gether." 


140  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Mr.  Hughes  is  rather  too  much  of  the  Rollings- 
worth  type  for  my  use,"  said  Ray.  He  wished  Mr. 
Brandreth  to  understand  that  he  had  no  sympathy  with 
Hughes's  wild-cat  philosophy,  both  because  he  had 
none,  and  because  he  believed  it  would  be  to  his  inter 
est  with  Mr.  Brandreth  to  have  none. 

"  I've  never  seen  him,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "  I 
like  Mr.  Chapley's  loyalty  to  his  friends  —  it's  one  of 
his  fine  traits  ;  but  I  don't  see  any  necessity  for  my 
taking  them  up.  He  goes  there  every  Sunday  morn 
ing  to  see  Mr.  Hughes,  and  they  talk  —  political  econ 
omy  together.  You  knew  Mr.  Chapley  has  been  a 
good  deal  interested  in  this  altruistic  agitation." 

"  No,  I  didn't,"  said  Ray. 

"  Yes.  You  can't  very  well  keep  clear  of  it  alto 
gether.  I  was  mixed  up  in  it  myself  at  one  time  :  our 
summer  place  is  on  the  outskirts  of  a  manufacturing 
town  in  Massachusetts,  and  we  had  our  Romeo  and 
Juliet  for  the  benefit  of  a  social  union  for  the  work 
people  ;  we  made  over  two  hundred  dollars  for  them. 
Mr.  Chapley  was  a  George  man  in  '86.  Not  that  he 
agreed  with  the  George  men  exactly ;  but  he  thought 
there  ought  to  be  some  expression  against  the  way 
things  are  going.  You  know  a  good  many  of  the 
nicest  kind  of  people  went  the  same  way  at  that  time. 
I  don't  object  to  that  kind  of  thing  as  long  as  it  isn't 
carried  too  far.  Mr.  Chapley  used  to  see  a  good 
deal  of  an  odd  stick  of  a  minister  at  our  summer 
place  that  had  got  some  of  the  new  ideas  in  a  pretty 
crooked  kind  of  shape ;  and  then  he's  read  Tolstoi  a 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  141 

good  deal,  and  he's  been  influenced  by  him.  I  think 
Hughes  is  a  sort  of  safety  valve  for  Mr.  Chapley,  and 
that's  what  I  tell  the  family.  Mr.  Chapley  isn't  a 
fool,  and  he's  always  had  as  good  an  eye  for  the  main 
chance  as  anybody.  That's  all." 

Ray  divined  that  Mr.  Brandreth  would  not  have  en 
tered  into  this  explanation  of  his  senior  partner  and 
father-in-law,  except  to  guard  against  the  injurious  in 
ferences  which  he  might  draw  from  having  met  Mr. 
Chapley  at  Hughes's,  but  he  did  not  let  his  guess  ap 
pear  in  his  words.  "  I  don't  wonder  he  likes  Mr. 
Hughes,"  he  said.  "  He's  fine,  and  he  seems  a  light 
of  sanity  and  reason  among  the  jack-a-lanterns  he 
gathers  round  him.  He  isn't  at  all  Tolstoian." 

"  He's  a  gentleman,  born  and  bred,"  said  Mr.  Bran 
dreth,  "  and  he  was  a  rich  man  for  the  days  before  he 
began  his  communistic  career.  And  Miss  Hughes  is  a 
perfect  lady.  She's  a  cultivated  girl,  too,  and  she 
reads  a  great  deal.  I'd  rather  have  her  opinion  about 
a  new  book  than  half  the  critics'  I  know  of,  because  I 
know  I  could  get  it  honest,  and  I  know  it  would  be  in 
telligent.  Well,  if  you're  going  up  there,  you'll  want 
to  be  getting  across  to  the  avenue  to  take  the  ele 
vated."  He  added,  "I  don't  mean  to  give  you  the 
impression  that  we've  made  up  our  minds  about  your 
book,  yet.  We  haven't.  A  book  is  a  commercial  ven 
ture  as  well  as  a  literary  ventaf§7  arid  we've-  got  to 
have  a  pow-wow  about  that  side  of  it  before  we  come 
to  any  sort  of  conclusion.  You  understand  ?  " 

"Oh,  yes,  I  understand  that,"  said  Ray,  "and  I'll 


142  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

try  not  to  be  unreasonably  hopeful,"  but  at  the  same 
moment  his  heart  leaped  with  hope. 

"  Well,  that's  right,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  taking  his 
hand  for  parting.  He  held  it,  and  then  he  said,  with 
a  sort  of  desperate  impulse,  "  By-the-way,  why  not 
come  home  with  me,  now,  and  take  dinner  with  us  ?  " 


XIX. 

RAY'S  heart  sank.  He  was  so  anxious  to  get  at 
those  opinions  ;  and  yet  he  did  not  like  to  refuse  Mr. 
Brandreth  ;  a  little  thing  might  prejudice  the  case  ;  he 
ought  to  make  all  the  favor  at  court  that  he  could  for 
his  book.  "I  —  I'm  afraid  it  mightn't  be  convenient 
—  at  such  a  time  —  for  Mrs.  Brandreth  " — 

"  Oh,  yes  it  would,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth  in  the  same 
desperate  note.  "  Come  along.  I  don't  know  that 
Mrs.  Brandreth  will  be  able  to  see  you,  but  I  want  you 
to  see  my  boy ;  and  we  can  have  a  bachelor  bite  to 
gether,  anyway." 

Ray  yielded,  and  the  stories  of  the  baby  began  again 
when  he  moved  on  with  Mr.  Brandreth.  It  was  agony 
for  him  to  wrench  his  mind  from  his  story,  which  he 
kept  turning  over  and  over  in  it,  trying  to  imagine 
what  the  readers  had  differed  about,  and  listen  to  Mr. 
Brandreth  saying,  "  Yes,  sir,  I  believe  that  child  knows 
his  grandmother  and  his  nurse  apart,  as  well  as  he 
knows  his  mother  and  me.  He's  got  his  likes  and  his 
dislikes  already :  he  cries  whenever  his  grandmother 
takes  him.  By-the-way,  you'll  see  Mrs.  Chapley  at 
dinner,  I  hope.  She's  spending  the  day  with  us." 

"  Oh,  I'm  very  glad,"  said  Ray,  wondering  if  the 
readers  objected  to  his  introduction  of  hypnotism. 


144  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  She's  a  woman  of  the  greatest  character,"  said  Mr. 
Brandreth,  u  but  she  has  some  old-fashioned  notions 
about  children.  1  want  my  boy  to  be  trained  as  a  boy 
from  the  very  start.  I  think  there's  nothing  like  a 
manly  man,  unless  it's  a  womanly  woman.  I  hate 
anything  masculine  about  a  girl ;  a  girl  ought  to  be 
yielding  and  gentle ;  but  I  want  my  boy  to  be  self- 
reliant  from  the  word  Go.  I  believe  in  a  man's  being 
master  in  his  own  house  ;  his  will  ought  to  be  law,  and 
that's  the  way  I  shall  bring  up  my  boy.  Mrs.  Chap- 
ley  thinks  there  ought  always  to  be  a  light  in  the 
nurse's  room,  but  I  don't.  I  want  my  boy  to  get  used 
to  the  dark,  and  not  be  afraid  of  it,  and  I  shall  begin 
just  as  soon  as  I  can,  without  seeming  arbitrary.  Mrs. 
Chapley  is  the  best  soul  in  the  world,  and  of  course  I 
don't  like  to  differ  with  her." 

;'  Of  course,"  said  Ray.  The  mention  of  relation 
ship  made  him  think  of  the  cousin  in  his  story ;  if  he 
had  not  had  the  cousin  killed,  he  thought  it  would 
have  been  better;  there  was  too  much  bloodshed  in 
the  story. 

They  turned  into  a  cross-street  from  Lexington  Ave 
nue,  where  they  had  been  walking,  and  stopped  at  a 
pretty  little  apartment-house,  which  had  its  door  painted 
black  and  a  wide  brass  plate  enclosing  its  key-hole,  and 
wore  that  air  of  standing  aloof  from  its  neighbors 
peculiar  to  private  houses  with  black  doors  and  brass 
plates. 

Mr.  Brandreth  let  himself  in  with  a  key.  "  There 
are  only  three  families  in  our  house,  and  it's  like 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  145 

having  a  house  of  our  own.  It's  so  much  easier  living 
in  a  flat  for  your  wife,  that  I  put  my  foot  down,  and 
wouldn't  hear  of  a  separate  house." 

They  mounted  the  carpeted  stairs  through  the  twi 
light  that  prevails  in  such  entries,  and  a  sound  of 
flying  steps  was  heard  within  the  door  where  Mr. 
Brandreth  applied  his  latch-key  again,  and  as 'he  flung 
it  open  a  long  wail  burst  upon  the  ear. 

"  Hear  that?  "  he  asked,  with  a  rapturous  smile,  as 
he  turned  to  Ray  for  sympathy ;  and  then  he  called 
gayly  out  in  the  direction  that  the  wail  came  from ; 
"  Oh,  hello,  hello,  hello  !  What's  the  matter,  what's 
the  matter  ?  You  sit  down  here,"-  he  said  to  Ray, 
leading  the  way  forward  into  a  pretty  drawing-room. 
He  caught  something  away  from  before  the  fire. 
"  Confound  that  nurse  !  She's  always  coming  in  here 
in  spite  of  everything.  I'll  be  with  you  in  a  moment. 
Heigh!  What  ails  the  little  man?"  he  called  out, 
and  disappeared  down  the  long  narrow  corridor,  and 
he  was  gone  a  good  while. 

At  moments  Ray  caught  the  sound  of  voices  in 
hushed,  but  vehement  dispute ;  a  door  slammed  vio 
lently  ;  there  were  murmurs  of  expostulation.  At  last 
Mr.  Brandreth  reappeared  with  his  baby  in  his  arms, 
and  its  nurse  at  his  heels,  twitching  the  infant's  long 
robe  into  place. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  that  ? "  demanded  the 
father,  and  Ray  got  to  his  feet  and  came  near,  so  as  to 
be  able  to  see  if  he  could  think  anything. 

By  an  inspiration  he  was  able  to  say,  "  Well,  he  is 


146  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

a  great  fellow !  "  and  this  apparently  gave  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth  perfect  satisfaction.  His  son's  downy  little 
oblong  skull  wagged  feebly  on  his  weak  neck,  his  arms 
waved  vaguely  before  his  face. 

"  Now  give  him  your  finger,  and  see  if  he  won't  do 
the  infant  Hercules  act." 

Ray  promptly  assumed  the  part  of  the  serpent,  but 
the  infant  Hercules  would  not  open  his  tightly-clinched, 
wandering  fist. 

"  Try  the  other  one,"  said  his  father  ;  and  Ray  tried 
the  other  one  with  no  more  effect.  "  Well,  he  isn't 
in  the  humor ;  he'll  do  it  for  you  some  time.  All 
right,  little  man ! "  He  gave  the  baby,  which  had 
acquitted  itself  with  so  much  distinction,  back  into  the 
arms  of  its  nurse,  and  it  was  taken  away. 

"  Sit  down,  sit  down  !  "  he  said,  cheerily.  "  Mrs. 
Chapley  will  be  in  directly.  It's  astonishing,"  he  said, 
with  a  twist  of  his  head  in  the  direction  the  baby  had 
been  taken,  "but  I  believe  those  little  things  have 
their  moods  just  like  any  of  us.  That  fellow  knows  as 
well  as  you  do,  when  he's  wanted  to  show  off,  and  if 
he  isn't  quite  in  the  key  for  it,  he  won't  do  it.  I  wish 
I  had  tried  him  with  my  hat,  and  let  you  see  how  he 
notices." 

Mr.  Brandreth  went  on  with  anecdotes,  theories, 
and  moral  reflections  relating  to  the  baby,  and  Ray 
answered  with  praiseful  murmurs  arid  perfunctory 
cries  of  wonder.  He  was  rescued  from  a  situation 
which  he  found  more  and  more  difficult  by  the  advent 
of  Mrs.  Chapley,  and  not  of  Mrs.  Chapley  alone,  but 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  147 

of  Mrs.  Bramlreth.  She  greeted  Ray  with  a  certain 
severity,  which  he  instinctively  divined  was  not  so 
much  for  him  as  for  her  husband.  A  like  quality  im 
parted  itself,  but  not  so  authoritatively,  from  her 
mother ;  if  Mr.  Brandreth  was  not  master  in  his  house, 
at  least  his  mother-in-law  was  not.  Mrs.  Brandreth 
went  about  the  room  and  made  some  housekeeperly 
rearrangements  of  its  furniture,  which  had  the  result 
of  reducing  it,  as  it  were,  to  discipline.  Then  she  sat 
down,  and  Ray,  whom  she  waited  to  have  speak  first, 
had  a  feeling  that  she  was  sitting  in  judgment  on  him, 
and  the  wish,  if  possible,  to  justify  himself.  He  began 
to  praise  the  baby,  its  beauty,  and  great  size,  and  the 
likeness  he  professed  to  find  in  it  to  its  father. 

Mrs.  Brandreth  relented  slightly.  She  said,  with 
magnanimous  impartiality,  "  It's  a  very  healthy  child." 

Her  mother  made  the  reservation,  "  But  even 
healthy  children  are  a  great  care,"  and  sighed. 

The  daughter  must  have  found  this  intrusive.  "  Oh, 
I  don't  know  that  Percy  is  any  great  care  as  yet, 
mamma." 

"  He  pays  his  way,"  Mr.  Brandreth  suggested,  with 
a  radiant  smile.  "At  least,"  he  corrected  himself, 
"  we  shouldn't  know  what  to  do  without  him." 

His  wife  said,  drily,  as  if  the  remark  were  in  bad 
taste,  "  It's  hardly  a  question  of  that,  I  think.  Have 
you  been  long  in  New  York,  Mr.  Ray  ?  "  she  asked, 
with  an  abrupt  turn  to  him. 

"  Only  a  few  weeks,"  Ray  answered,  inwardly  won 
dering  how  lie  could  render  the  fact  propitiatory. 


148  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Everything  is  very  curious  and  interesting  to  me  as 
a  country  person,"  lie  added,  deciding  to  make  this 
sacrifice  of  himself. 

It  evidently  availed  somewhat.  "  But  you  don't 
mean  that  you  are  really  from  the  country  ? "  Mrs. 
Brandreth  asked. 

"  I'm  from  Midland ;  and  I  suppose  that's  the 
country,  compared  with  New  York." 

Mrs.  Chapley  asked  him  if  he  knew  the  Mayquayts 
there.  He  tried  to  think  of  some  people  of  that  name  ; 
in  the  meantime  she  recollected  that  the  Mayquayts 
were  from  Gitchigumee,  Michigan.  They  talked  some 
irrelevancies,  and  then  she  said,  "  Mr.  Brandreth  tells 
me  you  have  met  my  husband,"  as  if  they  had  been 
talking  of  him. 

4<  Yes ;  1  had  that  pleasure  even  before  I  met  Mr. 
Brandreth,"  said  Ray. 

"  And  you  know  Mr.  Kane  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes.  He  was  the  first  acquaintance  I  made 
in  New  York." 

"  Mr.  Brandreth  told  me."  Mrs.  Chapley  made  a 
show  of  laughing  at  the  notion  of  Kane,  as  a  harmless 
eccentric,  and  she  had  the  effect  of  extending  her 
kindly  derision  to  Hughes,  in  saying,  "  And  you've 
been  taken  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  his  prophet  already, 
Mr.  Brandreth  tells  me ;  that  strange  Mr.  Hughes." 

"  I  shouldn't  have  said  he  was  Mr.  Kane's  prophet 
exactly,"  said  Ray  with  a  smile  of  sympathy.  "  Mr. 
Kane  doesn't  seem  to  need  a  prophet ;  but  I've  certainly 
seen  Mr.  Hughes.  And  heard  him,  for  that  matter." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  149 

He  smiled,  recollecting  his  dismay  when  he  heard 
Hughes  calling  upon  him  in  meeting.  He  had  a  no 
tion  to  describe  his  experience,  and  she  gave  him  the 
chance. 

"  Yes  ?  "  she  said,  with  veiled  anxiety.  "  Do  tell 
me  about  him  !  " 

At  the  end  of  Ray's  willing  compliance,  she  drew  a 
deep  breath,  and  said,  "  Then  he  is  not  a  follower  of 
Tolstoi?" 

"  Quite  the  contrary,  I  should  say." 

Mrs.  Chapley  laughed  more  easily.  "  I  didn't  know 
but  he  made  shoes  that  nobody  could  wear.  I  couldn't 
imagine  what  other  attraction  he  could  have  for  my 
husband.  I  believe  he  would  really  like  to  go  into 
the  country  and  work  in  the  fields."  Mrs.  Chapley 
laughed  away  a  latent  anxiety,  apparently,  in  making 
this  joke  about  her  husband,  and  seemed  to  feel  much 
better  acquainted  with  Ray.  "  How  are  they  living 
over  there  ?  What  sort  of  family  has  Mr.  Hughes  ? 
I  mean,  besides  the  daughter  we  know  of  ?  " 

Ray  told,  as  well  as  he  could,  and  he  said  they  were 
living  in  an  apartment. 

"  Oh !  "  said  Mrs.  Chapley,  "  I  fancied  a  sort  of 
tenement." 

"  By-the-way,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  "  wouldn't  you 
like  to  see  our  apartment,  Mr.  Ray"  —  his  wife 
quelled  him  with  a  glance,  and  he  added,  —  "  some 
time  ?  " 

Ray  said  he  should,  very  much. 

Mrs.  Brandreth,  like  her  mother,  had  been  growing 


150  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

more  and  more  clement,  and  now  she  said,  "  Won't 
you  stay  and  take  a  family  dinner  with  us,  Mr.  Ray  ?  " 

Ray  looked  at  her  husband,  and  saw  that  he  had 
noff  told  her  of  the  invitation  he  had  already  given. 
He  did  not  do  so  now,  and  Ray  rose  and  seized  his 
opportunity.  He  thanked  Mrs.  Brandreth  very 
earnestly,  and  said  he  was  so  sorry  he  had  an  appoint 
ment  to  keep,  and  he  got  himself  away  at  once. 

Mrs.  Chapley  hospitably  claimed  him  for  her 
Thursdays,  at  parting ;  and  Mrs.  Brandreth  said  he 
must  let  Mr.  Brandreth  bring  him  some  other  clay ; 
they  would  always  be  glad  to  see  him. 

Mr.  Brandreth  went  down  to  the  outer  door  with 
him,  to  make  sure  that  he  found  the  way,  and  said, 
"  Then  you  will  come  some  time  ? "  and  gratefully 
wrung  his  hand.  "I  saw  how  anxious  you  were 
about  those  opinions  !  " 


XX. 

WITH  an  impatience  whose  intensity  he  began  to 
feel  as  soon  as  he  permitted  himself  to  indulge  it,  Ray 
hurried  across  to  the  line  of  the  elevated  road.  Now 
he  perceived  how  intolerable  it  would  be  to  have  staid 
to  dinner  with  the  Brandreths.  He  did  not  resent  the 
failure  of  Mr.  Brandreth  to  tell  his  wife  that  he  had 
already  asked  him  when  she  asked  him  again  ;  he  did 
not  even  care  to  know  what  his  reasons  or  exigencies 
were ;  the  second  invitation  had  been  a  chance  to  get 
away.  From  time  to  time  while  Mr.  Brandreth  was 
showing  him  the  baby,  and  then  while  Mrs.  Chapley 
was  setting  her  mind  at  rest  about  her  husband  by  her 
researches  into  the  philosophy  and  character  of 
Hughes,  he  had  superficially  forgotten  that  the  readers' 
opinions  of  his  story  were  in,  while  his  nether  thought 
writhed  in  anguish  around  the  question  of  what  their 
opinions  were.  When  at  moments  this  fully  pene 
trated  his  consciousness,  it  was  like  a  sort  of  vertigo, 
and  he  was  light-headed  with  it  now  as  he  walked,  or 
almost  ran,  away  from  Mr.  Brandreth's  door.  He 
meant  to  see  Miss  Hughes,  and  beg  for  a  sight  of  the 
criticisms ;  perhaps  she  might  say  something  that 
would  save  him  from  the  worst,  if  they  were  very 
bad.  He  imagined  a  perfect  interview,  in  which  he 
met  no  one  but  her. 


152  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

It  was  Mrs.  Denton  who  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  stairs  to  receive  him  when  the  door  promptly 
opened  to  his  ring;  she  explained  that  her  husband 
had  put  the  lock  in  order  since  she  last  admitted 
him.  Ray  managed  to  say  that  he  wished  merely  to 
see  her  sister  for  a  moment,  and  why,  and  she  said 
that  Peace  had  gone  out,  but  would  be  at  home  again 
very  soon.  She  said  her  father  would  be  glad  to  have 
him  sit  down  with  him  till  Peace  came  back. 

Ray  submitted.  He  found  the  old  man  coughing 
beside  the  front  window,  that  looked  out  on  the  lines 
of  the  railroad,  and  the  ugly  avenue  beneath. 

Hughes  knew  him  at  once,  and  called  to  him : 
"  Well,  young  man  !  I  am  glad  to  see  you !  How  do 
you  do  ?  "  He  held  out  his  hand  when  he  was  seated, 
and  when  Ray  had  shaken  it,  he  motioned  with  it  to 
the  vacant  chair  on  the  other  side  of  the  window. 

"  I  hope  you  are  well,  sir  ?  "  said  Ray. 

"  I'm  .getting  the  better  of  this  nasty  cough  gradu 
ally,  and  I  pick  up  a  little  new  strength  every  day.  Yes, 
I'm  doing  very  well.  For  the  present  I  have  to  keep 
— fJaoused,  and  that's  tiresome.  But  it  gives  me  time  for 
a  bit  of  writing  that  I  have  in  hand ;  I'm  putting  to 
gether  the  impressions  that  this  civilization  of  yours 
makes  on  me,  in  a  little  book  that  I  call  The  World 
Revisited.'" 

JR-ay  did  not  see  exactly  why  Hughes  should  say  his 
civilization,  as  if  he  had  invented  it ;  but  he  did  not 
disclaim  it ;  and  Hughes  went  on  without  interruption 
from  him. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  153 

"  I  hope  to  get  my  old  friend  Chapley  to  bring  it 
out  for  me,  if  I  can  reconcile  him  to  its  radical  opin 
ions.  He's  timid,  Chapley  is  ;  and  my  book's  rather 
bold." 

Ray's  thought  darted  almost  instantly  to  his  own 
book,  and  ran  it  over  in  every  part,  seeking  whether 
there  might  be  something  in  it  that  was  too  bold  for  a 
timid  publisher,  or  a  timid  publisher's  professional 
readers.  He  was  aware  of  old  Hughes  monologuing 
on  with  the  satisfaction  of  an  author  who  speaks  of 
his  work  to  a  listener  he  has -at  his  mercy. 

"  My  booJs  is  a-eritidlsm  of  JOi)deiui_Jife___iiL_all_its 
aspects,  though  necessarily  as  the  field  is  so  vast,  I  can 
touch jon  some  only  in  the  most  cursory  fashion.  For 
instance,  take  this  whole  architectural  nightmare  that 
we  call  a  city.  I  hold  that  the  average  tasteless  man 
has  no  right  to  realize  his  ideas  of  a  house  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  multitude  of  his  fellow-beings.  It 
is  an  indecent  exposure  of  his  mind,  and  should  not 
be  permitted.  All  these  structural  forms  about  us, 
which  with  scarcely  an  exception  are  ugly  and  sense 
less,  I  regard  as  so  many  immoralities,  as  deliriums,  as 
jmbecilities,  which  a  civilized  state  would  not  permit, 
and  I  say  so  in  my  book.  The  city  should  build  the 
city,  and  provide  every  denizen  with  a  fit  and  beautiful 
habitation  to  work  in  and  rest  in." 

"  I'm  afraid,"  said  Ray,  tearing  his  mind  from  his 
book  to  put  it  on  this  proposition,  "  that  such  an  idea 
might  be  found  rather  startling." 

u  How,  startling  ?  Why,  startling  ?  "  Hughes  de 
manded. 


^L 
«S 


154  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  I  don't  know.  Wouldn't  it  infringe  upon  private 
rightsJL  Wouldn't  it  be  a  little  tyrannical?  " 

"  What  private  rights  has  a  man  in  the  outside  of 
his  house  "  Hughes  retorted.  "  The  interior  might 
be  left  to  his  ignorance  and  vulgarity.  But  the  out 
side  of  my  house  is  not  for  me  !  It's  for  others  !  The 
public  sees  it  ten  times  where  I  see  it  once.  If  I 
make  it  brutal  and  stupid,  /  am  the  tyrant,  /  am  the 
oppressor  —  I,  the  individual  !  Besides,  when  the 
sovereign  people  is  really  lord  of  itself,  it  can  and  will 
do  no  man  wrong." 

Ray  had  his  misgivings,  but  he  would  not  urge  them, 
because  it  was  a  gnawing  misery  to  think  of  anything 
but  his  story,  and  he  let  Hughes  break  the  silence  that 
he  let  follow. 

"  And  so,"  the  old  man  said  presently,  as  if  speak 
ing  of  his  own  book  had  reminded  him  of  Ray's,  "  you 
have  written  a  novel,  young  man.  And  what  is  your 
justification  for  writing  a  novel  at  a  time  like  this, 
when  we  are  all  trembling  on  the  verge  of  a  social 
V  I  cataclysm  ?  " 

"Justification  ?  "  Ray  faltered. 

"  Yes.     How  does  it  "justify  itself  ?      How  does  it 

---  *'  •* 

serve_God_aiLd  .help.-  man?  Does  it  dabble  with  the 
passioji  of  lave  between  a  girl  and  boy  as  if-that  were 
the  chief  concern  of  men  and  women  ?  Or  does  it 
Touch  some  of  the  real  concerns  of  life  —  some  of  the 
problems  pressing  on  to  their  solution,  and  needing  the 
prayerful  attention  of  every  human  creature  ?  " 

"It  isn't  merely  a  love-story,"  said  Ray,  glad  to  get 


V 

fc  A 

\£ 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  155 

to  it  on  any  terms,  "  though  it  is  a  love-story.  But 
I've  ventured  to  employ  a  sort  of  psychological  mo 
tive." 

"  What  sort  ?  " 

u  Well  —  hypnotism." 

"  A  mere  toy,  that  Poe  and  Hawthorne  played 
with  in  the  old  mesmerist  days,  and  I  don't  know  how 
many  others." 

"  I  don't  play  with  it  as  they  did,  exactly,"  said 
Ray. 

"  Oh,  I've  no  doubt  you  employ  it  to  as  new  effect 
as  the  scientifics  who  are  playing  with  it  again.  But 
how  can  you.  Jive  in  this  camp  of  embattled. lorees, 

_  ^^^-^ — ~~~^  — <-• '    —  '""         •  .    -..  """" 

where  luxury  and  misery  are  armed  against  each 
otherpand  every  lover  of  his  kind  should  give  heart 
and  bruin  to  the  solution  of  the  riddle  that  is  madden 
ing  brother  against  brother,  —  how  can  you  live  on 
here  and  be  content  with  the  artistic  study  of 


The  strong  words  of  the  old  man,  which  fell  tingling 
with  emotion,  had  no  meaningjpj^the^ 
Rajj_hevalu.edJtliem  aesthetically,  but  he  could  not 
make  personal  application  of  them.  He  had  a  kind  of 
amusement  in  answering :  "  Well,  I'm  not  quite  so 
bad  as  you  think,  Mr.  Hughes.  I  wrote  my  story 
several  years  ago.  I  don't  suppose  I  could  do  any 
thing  of  the  kind,  now." 

Hughes's  mouth  seemed  stopped  for  the  moment  by 
this  excuse.  He  sat  glaring  at  Ray's  bright,  handsome 
face  through  his  overhanging,  shaggy  eyebrows,  and 


f 


156  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

seemed  waiting  to  gather  strength  for  another  onset, 
when  his  daughter  Peace  came  silently  into  the  room 
behind  Ray. 

Her  father  did  not  give  her  time  to  greet  their  vis 
itor.  "  Well,"  he  called  out  with  a  voice  of  stormy 
pathos,  "  how  did  you  leave  that  poor  woman  ?  " 

"  She  is  dead,"  answered  the  girl. 

"  Good  !  "  said  Hughes.  "  So  far,  so  good.  Who 
is  living  ?  " 

"  There  are  several  children.  The  people  in  the 
house  are  taking  care  of  them." 

"  Of  course !  There,  young  man,"  said  Hughes,  "  is 
a  psychological  problem  better  worth  your  study  than 
the  phenomena  of  hypnotism  :  the  ability  of  poverty 
to  provide  for  want  out  of  its  very  destitution.  The 
miracle  of  the  loaves  and  fishes  is  wrought  here  every 
clay  in  the  great  tenement-houses.  Those  who  have 
nothing  for  themselves  can  still  find  something  for 
,  others.  The  direst  want  may  be  trusted  to  share  its 
i  crust  with  those  who  have  not  a  crust ;  and  still  some 
thing  remains,  as  if  Christ  had  blessed  the  bread  and 
broken  it  among  the  famishing.  Don't  you  think  that 
an  interesting  and  romantic  fact,  a  mystery  meriting 
the  attention  of  literary  art  ?  " 

It  did  strike  Ray  as  a  good  notion ;  something 
might  be  done  with  it,  say  in  a  Christmas  story,  if  you 
could  get  hold  of  a  tenement-house  incident  of  that 
kind,  and  keep  it  from  becoming  allegorical  in  the 
i  working  out. 

This  went  through  Ray's  mind  as  he  stood  thinking 

1- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  157 

also  how  he  should  ask  the  girl  for  his  manuscript  and 
the  criticisms  on  it  without  seeming  foolishly  eager. 
Her  father's  formidable  intervention  had  dispensed 
him  from  the  usual  greetings,  and  he  could  only  say, 
"  Oh !  Miss  Hughes,  Mr.  Brandreth  told  me  I  might 
come  and  get  my  story  of  you  —  A  Modern  Romeo  — 
and  the  readers'  opinions.  I  —  I  thought  I  should 
like  to  look  them  over  ;  and  —  and  "  — 

"  I  haven't  had  time  to  copy  them  yet,"  she  an 
swered.  "  Mr.  Brandreth  wished  you  to  see  them ; 
but  we  keep  the  readers  anonymous,  and  he  thought  I 
had  better  show  them  to  you  all  in  my  handwriting." 

"  I  shouldn't  know  the  writers.  He  said  I  could  see 
them  as  they  are." 

"  Well,  then,  I  will  go  and  get  them  for  you,"  she 
answered.  She  left  him  a  moment,  and  he  remained 
with  her  father  unmolested.  The  old  man  sat  staring 
out  on  the  avenue,  with  his  head  black  against  its 
gathering  lights. 

She  gave  him  the  packet  she  brought  back  with  her, 
and  then  she  followed  him  out  of  the  apartment  upon 
the  landing,  after  he  had  made  his  acknowledgments 
and  adieux. 

"  I  thought,"  she  said,  timidly,  "  you  would  like  to 
know  that  I  had  given  your  dollar  for  these  poor  chil 
dren.  Was  that  right?" 

Ray's  head  was  so  full  of  his  story  that  he  answered 
vaguely,  "  My  dollar  ?  "  Then  he  remembered,  "  Oh  ! 
Oh  yes  !  It  was  right  —  quite  right !  I'm  glad  you 
did  it.  Miss  Hughes !  Excuse  me ;  but  would  you 


158  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

mind  telling  me  whether  you  have  happened  to  look  at 
the  story  yourself  ?  " 

She  hesitated,  and  then  answered :  "  Yes,  I've  read 
it." 

"  Oh,  then,"  he  bubbled  out,  knowing  that  he  was 
wrong  and  foolish,  but  helpless  to  refrain,  "  before  I 
read  those  things,  won't  you  tell  me  —  I  should  care 
more  —  I  should  like  so  much  to  know  what  you  —  I 
suppose  I've  no  right  to  ask !  " 

He  tried  to  make  some  show  of  decency  about  the 
matter,  but  in  fact  he  had  the  heart  to  ask  a  dying  man 
his  opinion,  in  that  literary  passion  which  spares  noth 
ing,  and  is  as  protean  as  love  itself  in  its  disguises. 

"  I  suppose,"  she  answered,  "  that  I  had  no  right  to 
read  it ;  I  wasn't  asked  to  do  it." 

"  Oh,  yes,  you  had.     I'm  very  glad  you  did." 

"  The  opinions  about  it  were  so  different  that  I 
couldn't  help  looking  at  it,  and  then  —  I  kept  on,"  she 
said. 

"  Were  they  so  very  different  ?  "  he  asked,  trembling 
with  his  author's  sensitiveness,  while  the  implication  of 
praise  in  her  confession  worked  like  a  frenzied  hope  in 
his  brain.  "  And  you  kept  on  ?  Then  it  interested 
you  ?  " 

She  did  not  answer  this  question,  but  said  :  "  None 
of  them  thought  just  alike  about  it.  But  you'll  see 
them  "  - 

"  No,  no !  Tell  me  what  you  thought  of  it  your 
self!  Was  there  some  part  that  seemed  better  than 
the  rest?" 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  159 

She  hesitated.  "No,  I  would  rather  not  say.  I 
oughtn't  to  have  told  you  I  had  read  it." 

'•  You  didn't  like  it !  " 

"  Yes  ;  I  did  like  parts  of  it.  But  I  musn't  say  any 
more." 

"  But  what  parts  ?  "  he  pleaded. 

"  You  mustn't  ask  me.     The  readers'  opinions  "  — 

"  I  don't  care  for  them.  I  care  for  your  opinion," 
said  Ray,  perversely.  "  What  did  you  mean  by  their 
being  all  different  ?  Of  course,  I'm  absurd  !  BuL^ou 
don't  know  how  much  depends  upon  this  bo.ok.  It 
isn't  that  it|s  Jjie.  only^  hciok.J^expect  ever  to  write  ; 
but  ifjt  shDiLkLha-cejexited !  I've  had  to  wait  a  long 
while  already ;  and  then  to  have  to  go  peddling  it 
around  among  the  other  publishers !  Do  you  think 
that  it's  hopelessly  bad,  or  could  I  make  it  over? 
What  did  you  dislike  in  it  ?  Didn't  you  approve  of 
the  hypnotism?  That  was  the  only  thing  I  could 
think  of  to  bring  about  the  climax.  And  did  it  seem 
too  melodramatic  ?  Romeo  and  Juliet  is  melodra 
matic  !  I  hope  you  won't  think  I'm  usually  so  nervous 
about  my  work,"  he  went  on,  wondering  that  he  should 
be  giving  himself  away  so  freely,  when  he  was  really 
so  reserved.  "  I've  been  a  long  time  writing  the  story ; 
and  I've  worked  over  it  and  worked  over  it,  till  I've 
quite  lost  the  sense  of  it.  I  don't  believe  I  can  make 
head  or  tail  of  those  opinions.  That's  the  reason  why 
I  wanted  you  to  tell  me  what  you  thought  of  it  your 
self." 

"  But  I  have  no  right  to  do  that.     It  would  be  inter- 


160  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

fering  with  other  people's  work.  It  wouldn't  be  fair 
towards  Mr.  Brandreth,"  she  pleaded. 

"  I  see.  I  didn't  see  that  before.  And  you're  quite 
right,  and  I  beg  your  pardon.  Good-night !  " 

He  put  his  manuscript  on  the  seat  in  the  elevated 
train,  and  partly  sat  upon  it,  that  he  might  not  forget 
it  when  he  left  the  car.  But  as  he  read  the  profes 
sional  opinions  of  it  he  wished  the  thing  could  lose 
him,  and  never  find  him  again.  No  other  novel,  he 
thought,  could  ever  have  had  such  a  variety  of  certain 
faults,  together  with  the  vague  merit  which  each  of  its 
critics  seemed  to  feel  in  greater  measure  or  less.  Their 
work,  he  had  to  own,  had  been  faithfully  done;  he 
had  not  even  the  poor  consolation  of  accusing  them  of 
a  neglect  of  duty.  They  had  each  read  his  story,  and 
they  spoke  of  it  with  intelligence  in  -a  way,  if  not  every 
way.  Each  condemned  it  on  a  different  ground,  but 
as  it  stood  they  lilTJoined  in  condemning  it ;  and  they 
did  not  so  much  contradict  one  another  as  dwell  on 
different  defects  ;  so  that  together  they  covered  the 
whole  field  with  their  censure.  On&  of  them,  re 
proached  it  for  its  crudfij^alism,  and  the  sort  of  help 
less  fidelity  to  provincial  conditions  which  seemed  to 
come  from  the  author's  ignorance  of  anything  different. 
Another  blamed  the  youthful  romanticism  of  its_  deal 
ings  with  passion.  A  third  pointed  out  the  gross  im 
probability  of  the  plot  in  our  modern  circumstance. 
A  fourth  objected  to  the  employment  of  hypnotism  as 
a  clumsy  piece  of  machinery,  and  an  attempt  to  reach 
the  public  interest  through  a  prevailing  fad.  A  fifth 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  161 

touched  upon  the  obvious  imitation  of  Hawthorne  in 
the  psychical  analyses.     A  sixth  accused  the  author 
'  of  having  adopted  Thackeray's  manner  without  Thack 
eray's  material. 

/Kay  resented,  with  a  keen  sense  of  personal  affront, 
these  criticisms  in  severalty,  but.  their  combined  effect 
was  utter  humiliation,  though  they  were  less  true  taken 
together  than  they  were  separately.     At  the  bottom 
of  his  sore  and  angry  heart  he  could  not  deny  their 
truth,  and  yet  he  knew  that  there  was  something  in 
his  book  which  none  of  them  had  taken  account  of, 
t  and  that  this  was  its  life,  which  had  come  out  of  his 
IjownA—He  was  aware  of  all  those  crude  and  aw¥ward 
*  and  affected  things,  but  he  believed  there  was  some 
thing,  too,  that  went  with  them,  and    that   had   not 
been  in  fiction  before. 

It  was  this  something  which  he  hoped  that  girl  had 
felt  in  his  story,  and  which  he  was  trying  to  get  her 
to  own  to  him  before  he  looked  at  the  opinions.  They 
confounded  and  distracted  him  beyond  his  foreboding 
even,  and  it  was  an  added  anguish  to  keep  wondering, 
as  he  did  all  night,  whether  she  had  really  found  any 
thing  more  in  the  novel  than  his  critics  had.  As  he 
turned  from  side  to  side  and  beat  his  pillow  into  this 
shape  and  that,  he  reconstructed  the  story  after  one 
critic's  suggestion,  and  then  after  another's  ;  but  the 
material  only  grew  more  defiant  and  impossible ;  if  it 
«  could  not  keep  the  shape  it  had,  it  would  take  no 
other.  That  was  plain  ;  and  the  only  thing  to  be  done 
,  was  to  throw  it  away,  and  write  something  else ;  for  it 


162  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

was  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Brandreth 
would  think  of  bringing  the  book  out  in  the  teeth  of 
all  these  adverse  critics.  But  now  he  had  no  heart  to 
think  of  anything  else,  although  he  was  always  think 
ing  of  something  else,  while  there  was  hope  of  getting 
published.  His  career  as  an  author  was  at  an 
end ;  he  must  look  about  for  some  sort  of  newspaper 
work ;  he  ought  to  be  very  glad  if  he  could  get  some- 
thing  to  do  as  a  space  man. 


XXL 

HE  rose,  after  a  late  nap  following  his  night-long 
vigils,  with  despair  in  his  soul.  He  believed  it  was 
despair,  and  so  it  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes. 
But,  when  he  had  bathed,  he  seemed  to  have  washed  a 
little  of  his  despair  away ;  when  he  had  dressed,  he 
felt  hungry,  and  he  ate  his  breakfast  with  rather  more 
than  his  usual  appetite. 

The  reaction  was  merely  physical,  and  his  gloom 
settled  round  him  again  when  he  went  back  to  his 
attic  and  saw  his  manuscript  and  those  deadly  opin 
ions.  He  had  not  the  heart  to  go  out  anywhere,  and 
he  cowered  alone  in  his  room.  If  he  could  only  get 
the  light  of  some  other  mind  on  the  facts  he  might 
grapple  with  them ;  but  without  this  he  was  limp  and 
helpless.  Now  he  knew,  in  spite  of  all  his  pretences 
to  the  contrary,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  and  cautions 
he  had  given  himself,  that  he  had  not  only  hoped,  but 
had  expected,  that  his  story  \vould  be  found  good 
enough  to  publish.  Yet  none  of  these  readers  —  even 
those  who  found  some  meritorious  traits  in  it  —  had 
apparently  dreamed  of  recommending  it  for  publica 
tion.  It  was  no  wonder  that  Miss  Hughes  had  been 
so  unwilling  to  tell  him  what  s;he  thought  of  it ;  that 


164  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

she  had  urged  him  so  strongly  to  read  the  opinions 
first.  What  a  fool  she  must  have  thought  him  ! 

There  was  no  one  else  he  could  appeal  to,  unless  it 
was  old  Kane.  He  did  not  know  where  Kane  lived, 
even  if  he  could  have  gathered  the  courage  to  go  to 
him  in  his  extremity ;  and  he  bet  himself  that  Kane 
would  not  repeat  his  last  Sunday's  visit.  The  time 
for  any  reasonable  hope  of  losing  passed,  and  then  to 
his  great  joy  he  lost.  There  came  a  hesitating  step 
outside  his  door,  as  if  some  one  were  in  doubt  where  to 
knock,  and  then  a  tap  at  it. 

Ray  flung  it  open,  and  at  sight  of  Kane  the  tears 
came  into  his  eyes,  and  he  could  not  speak. 

"Why,  my  dear  friend!  "  cried  Kane,  "what  is  the 
matter  ?  " 

Ray  kept  silent  till  he  could  say  coldly,  "  Nothing. 
It's  all  over." 

Kane  stepped  into  the  room,  and  took  off  his  hat. 
"If  you  haven't  been  rejected  by  the  object  of  your 
affections,  you  have  had  the  manuscript  of  your  novel 
declined.  These  are  the  only  things  that  really  bring 
annihilation.  I  think  the  second  is  worse.  A  man  is 
never  so  absolutely  and  solely  in  love  with  one  woman 
but  he  knows  some  other  who  is  potentially  lovable ; 
that  is  the  wise  provision  of  Nature.  But  while  a  man 
has  a  manuscript  at  a  publisher's,  it  is  the  only  manu 
script  in  the  world.  You  can  readily  work  out  the 
comparison.  I  hope  you  have  merely  been  disappointed 
in  love,  my  dear  boy." 

Ray  smiled  ruefully.     "  I'm  afraid  it's  worse." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  165 

"Then  Chapley  &  Co.  have  declined  your  novel 
definitely  ?  " 

"Not  in  set  terms;  or  not  yet.  But  their  readers 
have  all  reported  against  it,  and  I've  passed  the  night 
in  reading  their  opinions.  I've  got  them  by  heart. 
Would  you  like  to  hear  me  repeat  them  ?  "  he  demanded, 
with  a  fierce  self-scorn. 

Kane  looked  at  him  compassionately.  "  Heaven 
forbid !  I  could  repeat  them,  I  dare  say,  as  accurately 
as  you ;  the  opinions  of  readers  do  not  vary  much,  and 
I  have  had  many  novels  declined." 

"  Have  you  ? "  Ray  faltered  with  compunction  for 
his  arrogation  of  all  such  suffering  to  himself. 

"  Yes.  That  was  one  reason  why  I  began  to  write 
Hard  Sayings.  But  if  you  will  let  me  offer  you 
another  leaf  from  my  experience,  I  will  suggest  that 
there  are  many  chances  for  reprieve  and  even  pardon 
after  the  readers  have  condemned  your  novel.  I  once 
had  a  novel  accepted  —  the  only  novel  I  ever  had 
accepted  —  after  all  the  publisher's  readers  had  pro 
nounced  against  it." 

"  Had  you  ?  "  Ray  came  tremulously  back  at  him. 

"  Yes,"  sighed  Kane.  "  That  is  why  Chapley  is  so 
fond  of  me  ;  he  has  forgiven  me  a  deadly  injury."  He 
paused  to  let  his  words  carry  Ray  down  again,  and 
then  he  asked,  with  a  nod  toward  the  bed  where  the 
young  fellow  had  flung  his  manuscript  and  the  readers' 
opinions,  "  Might  I  ?  " 

"  Oh,  certainly,"  said  Ray  from  his  depths ;  and 
Kane  took  up  the  opinions  and  began  to  run  them 
over. 


166  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"Yes,  they  have  a  strangely  familiar  effect;  they 
are  like  echoes  from  my  own  past."  He  laid  them 
down  again.  "  Do  you  think  they  are  right  ?  " 

"  Yes.     Perfectly  !     That  is  "  — 

"  Oh !      That  is.     There  is  hope,  I  see." 

"  How,  hope  ?  "  Ray  retorted.  "  Does  my  differ 
ing  with  them  make  any  difference  as  to  the  out 
come  ?  " 

"  For  the  book,  no,  perhaps  ;  for  you,  yes,  decidedly. 
It  makes  all  the  difference  between  being  stunned  and 
being  killed.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  be  stunned,  but  it  is 
not  for  such  a  long  time  as  being  killed.  What  is  your 
story  about  ?  " 

It  astonished  Ray  himself  to  find  how  much  this 
question  revived  his  faith  and  courage.  His  undying 
interest  in  the  thing,  by  and  for  itself,  as  indestructible 
as  a  mother's  love,  revived,  and  he  gave  Kane  the  out 
line  of  his  novel.  Then  he  filled  this  in,  and  he  did 
not  stop  till  he  had  read  some  of  the  best  passages. 
He  suddenly  tossed  his  manuscript  from  him.  "What 
a  fool  I  am  !  " 

Kane  gave  his  soft,  thick  laugh,  shutting  his  eyes, 
and  showing  his  small  white  teeth,  still  beautifully 
sound.  "  Oh,  no !  Oh,  no !  I  have  read  worse 
things  than  that!  I  have  written  worse  than  that. 
Come,  come!  Here  is  nothing  to  beat  the  breast  for. 
I  doubt  if  Chapley's  will  take  it,  in  defiance  of  their 
readers  ;  their  experience  with  me  has  rendered  that 
very  improbable.  But  they  are  not  the  only  publishers 
in  New  York,  or  Philadelphia  even ;  I'm  told  they 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  167 

have  very  eager  ones  in  Chicago.  Why  shouldn't  the 
roman  psychologique,  if  that's  the  next  thing,  as  Mr. 
Brandreth  believes,  get  on  its  legs  at  Chicago,  and 
walk  East?" 

"I  wonder,"  Ray  said,  rising  aimlessly  from  his 
chair,  "  whether  it  would  do  to  call  on  Mr.  Brandreth 
to-day  ?  This  suspense  —  Do  you  know  whether  he 
is  very  religious  ?  " 

"  How  should  I  know  such  a  thing  of  my  fellow-man 
in  New  York  ?  I  don't  know  it  even  of  myself.  At 
times  I  am  very  religious,  and  at  times,  not.  But  Mr. 
Brandreth  is  rather  a  formal  little  man,  and  a  business 
interview  on  Sunday,  with  an  agonized  author,  might 
not  seem  exactly  decorous  to  him." 

"  I  got  the  impression  he  wasn't  very  stiff.  But  it 
wouldn't  do,"  said  Ray,  before  Kane  had  rounded  his 
neat  period.  "  What  an  ass  I  am  !  " 

"  We  are  all  asses,"  Kane  sighed.  u  It  is  the  great 
bond  of  human  brotherhood.  When  did  you  get  these 
verdicts  ?  " 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Brandreth  told  me  Miss  Hughes  had  taken 
them  home  with  her  yesterday,  and  I  couldn't  rest  till 
I  had  his  leave  to  go  and  get  them  of  her." 

"  Exactly.  If  we  know  there  is  possible  unhappi- 
ness  in  store  for  us,  we  don't  wrait  for  it ;  we  make 
haste  and  look  it  up,  and  embrace  it.  And  how  did 
my  dear  old  friend  Hughes,  if  you  saw  him,  impress 
you  this  time  ?  " 

"  I  saw  him,  and  I  still  prefer  him  to  his  friends," 
said  Ray. 


168  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

u  Naturally.  There  are  not  many  people,  even  in  a 
planet  so  overpeopled  as  this,  who  are  the  peers  of 
David  Hughes.  He  goes  far  to  make  me  respect  my 

(pecies.     Of  course  he  is  ridiculous.     A  man  so  hope- 
.il   as    Hughes    is    the   reductio  ad  absurdum  of  the 
uman   proposition.     How   can .there   reasonably   be 
op.£jii-4LWorld  where  poverty 'and  death  are  ?     To  be 
sure,  Hughes  proposes  to  eliminate  poverty  and  explain 
death.     You  know  he  thinks  —  he  really  believes,  I 
suppose  —  that  if  he  could  once  get  his  millenium  go 
ing,  and  eyerybody  so  blessed  in  this  life  that  the  abso 
lute  knowledge  of  heavenly  conditions  in  another  would 
not'  tempt  us  to  suicide,  then  the  terror  and  the  mystery 
of  dealfr  would  be  taken  away,  and  the  rSce  would  be 
trusted   with   its   benificent   meaning.     It's    rather   a 
pretty  notion.*' 

R?y,  with  his  narrow  experience,  would  not  have 
been  able  to  grasp  it  fully.  Now  he  broke  out  with 
out  the  least  relevancy  to  it,  "  I  wonder  how  it  would 
(do  to  remodel  my  story  so  far  as  to  transfer  the  scene 
to  New  York?  It  might  be  more  popular."  The 
criticism  that  one  of  those  readers  had  made  on  the 
helplessness  of  his  fidelity  to  simple  rustic  conditions 
had  suddenly  begun  to  gall  him  afresh.  "  I  beg  your 
pardon.  I  didn't  notice  what  you  were  saying!  I 
can't  get  my  mind  off  that  miserable  thing ! }' 

Kane  laughed.  "  Oh,  don't  apologize.  I  know 
how  it  is.  Perhaps  a  change  of  scene  would  be  good ; 
it's  often  advised,  you  know."  He  laughed  again,  and 
Ray  with  him,  ruefully,  and  now  he  rose. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  169 

"  Oh,  must  you  go  ?  "  Ray  entreated. 

"  Yes.  You  are  best  alone ;  when  we  are  in  pain 
we  are  alone,  anyway.  If  misery  loves  company, 
company  certainly  does  not  love  misery.  I  can  stand 
my  own  troubles,  but  not  other  people's.  Good-by! 
We  will  meet  again  when  you  are  happier." 


XXII. 

MR.  BRANDRETH  tried  hard  to  escape  from  the 
logic  of  his  readers'  opinions.  In  the  light  of  his 
friendly  optimism  they  took  almost  a  favorable  cast. 
He  argued  that  there  was  nothing  absolutely  dam 
natory  in  those  verdicts,  that  they  all  more  or  less 
tacitly  embodied  a  recommendation  to  mercy.  So  far 
his  personal  kindliness  carried  him,  but  beyond  this 
point  business  put  up  her  barrier.  He  did  not  propose 
to  take  the  book  in  spite  of  his  readers  ;  he  said  he 
would  see ;  and  after  having  seen  for  a  week  longer, 
he  returned  the  MS.  with  a  letter  assuring  Ray  of  his 

jjegret,  and  saying  that  if  he  could  modify  the  story 
according  to  the  suggestions  of  their  readers,  Chapley 

|&  Co.  would  be  pleased  to  examine  it  again. 

Ray  had  really  expected  some  such  answer  as  this, 
though  he  hoped  against  reason  for  something  differ 
ent.  In  view  of  it  he  had  spent  the  week  mentally 
recasting  the  story  in  this  form  and  in  that ;  sometimes 
it  yielded  to  his  efforts  in  one  way  or  another ;  when 
the  manuscript  came  into  his  hands  again,  he  saw  that 
it  was  immutably  fixed  in  the  terms  he  had  given  it, 
and  that  it  must  remain  essentially  what  it  was,  in 
spite  of  any  external  travesty. 

He  offered  Mr.  Brandreth  his  thanks  and  his  excuses 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  171 

for  not  trying  to  make  any  change  in  it  until  he  had 
first  offered  it  as  it  was  to  other  publishers.  He  asked 
if  it  would  shut  him  out  of  Chapley  &  Co.'s  grace  if 
he  were  refused  elsewhere,  and  received  an  answer  of 
the  most  flattering  cordiality  to  the  effect  that  their 
desire  to  see  the  work  in  another  shape  was  quite  un 
conditioned.  Mr.  Brandreth  seemed  to  have  put  a 
great  deal  of  heart  in  this  answer ;  it  was  most  affec 
tionately  expressed ;  it  closed  with  the  wish  that  he 
might  soon  see  Ray  at  his  house  again. 

Ray  could  not  have  believed,  but  for  the  experience 
which  came  to  him,  that  there  could  be  so  many  reasons 
for  declining  to  publish  any  one  book  as  the  different 
publishers  now  gave  him.  For  the  most  part  they 
deprecated  the  notion  of  even  looking  at  it.  The 
book-trade  had  never  been  so  prostrate  before  ;  events 
of  the  most  unexpected  nature  had  conspired  to  reduce 
it  to  a  really  desperate  condition.  The  unsettled  state 
of  Europe  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  it ;  the  succes 
sion  of  bad  seasons  at  the  West  affected  it  most  dis 
tinctly.  The  approach  of  a  Presidential  year  was  un 
favorable  to  this  sensitive  traffic.  Above  all,  the  sus 
pense  created  by  the  lingering  and  doubtful  fate  of  the 
international  copyright  bill  was  playing  havoc  with  it ; 
people  did  not  know  what  course  to  take  ;  it  was  im 
possible  to  plan  any  kind  of  enterprise,  or  to  risk  any 
sort  of  project.  Men  who  had  been  quite  buoyant  in 
regard  to  the  bill  seemed  carried  down  to  the  lowest 
level  of  doubt  as  to  its  fate  by  the  fact  that  Ray  had  a 
novel  to  offer  them ;  they  could  see  no  hope  for  Amer- 


172  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

lean  fiction,  if  that  English  trash  was  destined  to  flood 
the  market  indefinitely.  They  sympathized  with  him, 
but  they  said  they  were  all  in  the  same  boat,  and  that 
the  only  thing  was  to  bring  all  the  pressure  each  could 
to  bear  upon  Congress.  The  sum  of  their  counsel  and 
condolence  came  to  the  effect  in  Ray's  mind  that  his 
best  hope  was  to  get  A  Modern  Romeo  printed  by  Con 
gress  as  a  Public  Document  and  franked  by  the  Sena 
tors  and  Representatives  to  their  constituents.  He 
found  a  melancholy  amusement  in  noting  the  change 
in  the  mood  of  those  who  used  to  meet  him  cheer 
fully  and  carelessly  as  the  correspondent  of  a  news 
paper,  and  now  found  themselves  confronted  with  an 
author,  and  felt  his  manuscript  at  their  throats.  Some 
tried  to  joke ;  some  became  helplessly  serious  ;  some 
sought  to  temporize. 

Those  whose  circumstances  and  engagements  for 
bade  them  even  to  look  at  his  novel  were  the  easiest  to 
bear  with.  They  did  not  question  the  quality  or  char 
acter  of  his  work  ;  they  had  no  doubt  of  its  excellence, 
and  they  had  perfect  faith  in  its  success  ;  but  simply 
their  hands  were  so  full  they  could  not  touch  it.  The 
other  sort,  when  they  consented  to  examine  the  story, 
kept  it  so  long  that  Ray  could  not  help  forming  false 
hopes  of  the  outcome ;  or  else  they  returned  it  with  a 
precipitation  that  mortified  his  pride,  and  made  him 
sceptical  of  their  having  looked  into  it  at  all.  He  did 
not  experience  unconditional  rejection  everywhere.  In 
some  cases  the  readers  proposed  radical  and  impossible 
changes,  as  Chapley  &  Co.'s  readers  had  done.  In  one 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  173 

instance  they  so  far  recommended  it  that  the  publisher 
was  willing  to  lend  his  imprint  and  manage  the  book 
for  the  per  cent,  usually  paid  to  authors,  if  Ray  would 
meet  all  the  expenses.  There  was  an  enthusiast  who 
even  went  so  far  as  to  propose  that  he  would  publish 
it  if  Ray  would  pay  the  cost  of  the  electrotype  plates. 
He  appeared  to  think  this  a  handsome  offer,  and  Ray 
in  fact  found  it  so  much  better  than  nothing  that  he 
went  into  some  serious  estimates  upon  it.  He  called 
in  the  help  of  old  Kane,  who  was  an  expert  in  the 
matter  of  electrotyping,  aud  was  able  from  his  sad  ex 
perience  to  give  him  the  exact  figures.  They  found 
that  A  New  Romeo  would  make  some  four  hun 
dred  and  thirty  or  forty  pages,  and  that  at  the  lowest 
price  the  plates  would  cost  more  than  three  hundred 
dollars.  The  figure  made  Ray  gasp  ;  the  mere  thought 
of  it  impoverished  him.  His  expenses  had  already 
eaten  a  hundred  dollars  into  his  savings  beyond  the 
five  dollars  a  week  he  had  from  the  Midland  Echo  for 
his  letters.  If  he  paid  out  this  sum  for  his  plates,  he 
should  now  have  some  ninety  dollars  left. 

"  But  then,"  said  Kane,  arching  his  eyebrows,  "  the 
trifling  sum  of  three  hundred  dollars,  risked  upon  so 
safe  a  venture  as  A  New  Romeo,  will  probably  result 
in  riches  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice." 

"  Yes  :  or  it  may  result  in  total  loss,"  Ray  returned. 

"  It  is  a  risk.  But  what  was  it  you  have  been  ask 
ing  all  these  other  people  to  do  ?  One  of  them  turns 
and  asks  you  to  share  the  risk  with  him ;  he  asks  you 
to  risk  less  than  half  on  a  book  that  you  have  written 


174  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

yourself,  and  he  will  risk  the  other  half.  What  just 
ground  have  you  for  refusing  his  generous  offer  ?  " 

"  It  isn't  my  business  to  publish  books  ;  it's  my  busi 
ness  to  write  them,"  said  Ray,  coldly. 

"  Ah-h-h  !  Very  true  !  That  is  a  solid  position. 
Then  all  you  have  to  do  to  make  it  quite  impregnable 
is  to  write  such  books  that  other  men  will  be  eager  to 
take  all  the  risks  of  publishing  them.  It  appears  that 
in  the  present  case  you  omitted  to  do  that."  Kane 
watched  Ray's  face  with  whimsical  enjoyment.  "I 
was  afraid  you  were  putting  your  reluctance  upon  the 
moral  ground,  and  that  you  were  refusing  to  bet  on 
your  book  because  you  thought  it  wrong  to  bet." 

"  I'm  afraid,"  said  Ray,  dejectedly,  "  that  the  moral 
question  didn't  enter  with  me.  If  people  thought  it 
wrong  to  make  bets  of  that  kind,  it  seems  to  me  that 
all  business  would  come  to  a  standstill." 

"  'Sh  !  "  said  Kane,  putting  his  finger  to  his  lip,  and 
glancing  round  with  burlesque  alarm.  "  This_j.s_open 
incivism._  It  is  accusing  the  whole  framework  of  com 
mercial  civilization.  Go  on  ;  it's  delightful  to  hear 
you  ;  but  don't  let  any  one  overhear  you." 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  mean,"  said  Ray,  with 
sullen  resentment,  "  about  incivism.  I'm  saying  what 
everybody  knows." 

"  Ah  !  But  what  everybody  knows  is  just  what  no 
body  says.  If  people  said  what  they  knew,  society 
would  tumble  down  like  a  hous£  of  cards." 

Ray  was  silent,  far  withdrawn  from  these  generali 
ties  into  his  personal  question. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  175 

Kane  asked  compassionately,  "  Thenyou_think 
can't   venture  —  risk  —  ~ 


was  trying  to  find  a  euphemism  for  the  action,  but 
there  seems  none  !  " 

"No  ;  I  daren't  do  it!     The  risk  is  too  great/' 

"  That  seems  to  be  the  consensus  of  the  book  trade 
concerning  it.  Perhaps  you  are  right.  Would  you 
mind,"  asked  Kane  with  all  his  sweet  politeness,  "  let 
ting  me  take  your  manuscript  home,  and  go  over  it 
carefully  ?  " 

"  Let  you  !  "  Ray  began  in  a  rapture  of  gratitude, 
but  Kane  stopped  him. 

"  No,  no  !  Don't  expect  anything  !  Don't  form 
any  hopes.  Simply  suppose  me  to  be  reading  it  as  a 
lover  of  high-class  fiction,  with  no  ulterior  view  what 
ever.  I  am  really  the  feeblest  of  conies,  and  I  have 
not  even  the  poor  advantage  of  having  my  habitation 
in  the  rocks.  Good-by  !  Good-day  !  Don't  try  to 
stop  me  with  civilities  !  Heaven  knows  how  far  my 
noble  purpose  will  hold  if  it  is  weakened  by  any  man 
ner  of  delay." 

Ray  lived  a  day  longer  in  the  flimsiest  air-castles 
that  ever  the  vagrant  winds  blew  through.  In  the 
evening  Kane  came  back  with  his  story. 

"  Well,  my  dear  young  friend,  you  have  certainly 

produced  the  despair  of  criticism  in  this  extraordinary 

fiction  of  yours.     I  don't  wonder  all  the  readers  have 

~^been  of  so  many  minds  about  it.     I  only  wonder  that 

any  one  man  could  be  of  any  one  mind  about  it  long 

\  enough  to  get  himself  down  on  paper.     In  some  re- 

12 


176  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

spects  it  is  the  very  worst  thing  I  ever  saw,  and  yet 
—  arid'yeif—  it  interested  me,  it  held  me  to  the  end. 
I  will  make  a  confession  ;  I  will  tell  you  .the  truth.  I 
took  the  thing  home,  hoping  to  find  justification  in  it 
for  approaching  a  poor  friend  of  mine  who  is  in  the 
publishing  line,  and  making  him  believe  that  his  inter 
est  lay  in  publishing  it.  But  I  could  not  bring  myself 
to  so  simple  an  act  of  bad  faith.  I  found  I  should 
have  to  say  to  my  friend,  '  Here  is  a  novel  which 
might  make  your  everlasting  fortune,  but  most  of  the 
chances  are  against  it.  There  are  twenty  chances 
that  it  will  fail  to  one  that  it  will  succeed ;  just  the 
average  of  failure  and  success  in  business  life.  You 
had  better  take  it.'  Of  course  he  would  not  take  it, 
because  he  could  not  afford  to  add  a  special  risk  to  the 
general  business  risk.  You  see  ?  " 

"  I  see,"  said  Ray,  but  without  the  delight  that  a 
case  so  beautifully  reasoned  should  bring  to  the  log 
ical  mind.  At  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  though  he 
made  such  an  outward  show  of  fairness  and  imperson 
ality,  he  was  simply  and  selfishly  emotional  about  his 
book.  He  could  not  enter  into  the  humor  of  Kane's 
dramatization  of  the  case  ;  he  tacitly  accused  him  of  in 
consistency,  and  possibly  of  envy  and  jealousy.  It 
began  to  be  as  if  it  were  Kane  alone  who  was  keeping 
his  book  from  its  chance  with  the  public.  This  con 
ception,  which  certainly  appeared  perverse  to  Ray  at 
times,  was  at  others  entirely  in  harmony  with  one  of 
several  theories  of  the  man.  He  had  chilled  Ray 
more  than  once  by  the  cold  cynicism  of  his  opinions 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  177 

concerning  mankind  at  large ;  and  now  Ray  asked 
himself  why  Kane's  cynicism  should  not  characterize 
his  behavior  towards  him,  too.  Such  a  man  would 
find  a  delight  in  studying  him  in  his  defeat,  and  turn 
ing  his  misery  into  phrases  and  aphorisms. 

He  was  confirmed  in  his  notion  of  Kane's  heartless- 
ness  by  the  strange  behavior  of  Mr.  Brandreth,  who 
sent  for  his  manuscript  one  morning,  asking  if  he 
might  keep  it  a  few  days,  and  then  returned  it  the 
same  day,  with  what  Ray  thought  an  insufficient  ex 
planation  of  the  transaction.  He  proudly  suffered  a 
week  under  its  inadequacy,  and  then  he  went  to  Mr. 
Brandreth,  and  asked  him  just  what  the  affair  meant ; 
it  seemed  to  him  that  he  had  a  right  to  know. 

Mr.  Brandreth  laughed  in  rather  a  shame-faced  way. 
"  I  may  as  well  make  a  clean  breast  of  it.  As  I  told 
you  when  we  first  met,  I've  been  wanting  to  publish  a 
novel  for  some  time  ;  and  although  I  haven't  read 
yours,  the  plot  attracted  me,  and  I  thought  I  would 
give  it  another  chance  —  the  best  chance  I  could.  I 
wanted  to  show  it  to  a  friend  of  yours  —  I  suppose  I 
may  say  friend,  at  least  it  was  somebody  that  I  thought 
would  be  prejudiced  more  in  favor  of  it  than  against 
it;  and  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  if  the  person 
approved  of  it  I  would  read  it  too,  and  if  we  agreed 
about  it,  I  would  get  Mr.  Chapley  to  risk  it.  But  — 
I  found  that  the  person  had  read  it." 

"  And  didn't  like  it." 

"  I  can't  say  that,  exactly." 

"  If  it  comes  to  that,"  said  Ray,  with  a  bitter  smile, 


178  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  it  doesn't  matter  about  the  precise  terms."  He  could 
not  speak  for  a  moment ;  then  he  swallowed  the  chok 
ing  lump  in  his  throat,  and  offered  Brandreth  his  hand. 
"  Thank  you,  Mr.  Brandreth !  I'm  sure  you're  my 
friend ;  and  I  sha'n't  forget  your  kindness." 


XXIII. 

THE  disappointment  which  Ray  had  to  suffer  would 
have  been  bad  enough  simply  as  the  refusal  of  his 
book ;  with  the  hope  raised  in  him  and  then  crushed 
after  the  first  great  defeat,  the  trial  was  doubly  bitter. 
It  was  a  necessity  of  his  suffering  and  his  temperament 
to  translate  it  into  some  sort  of  literary  terms,  and  he 
now  beguiled  his  enforced  leisure  by  beginning  several 
stories  and  poems  involving  his  experience.  One  of 
the  poems  he  carried  so  far  that  he  felt  the  need  of 
another  eye  on  it  to  admire  it  and  confirm  him  in  his 
good  opinion  of  it ;  he  pretended  that  he  wanted  criti 
cism,  but  he  wanted  praise.  He  would  have  liked  to 
submit  the  poem  to  Kane  ;  but  he  could  not  do  this 
now,  though  the  coldness  between  them  was  tacit,  and 
they  met  as  friends  when  they  met.  He  had  a  vulgar 
moment  wrhen  he  thought  it  would  be  a  fine  revenge  if 
he  could  make  Kane  listen  to  that  passage  of  his  poem 
which  described  the  poet's  betrayal  by  a  false  friend, 
by  the  man  who  held  his  fate  in  his  hand  and  coolly 
turned  against  him.  Kane  must  feel  the  sting  of  self- 
reproach  from  this  through  all  the  disguises  of  time 
and  place  which  wrapped  it ;  but  the  vulgar  moment 
passed,  and  Ray  became  disgusted  with  that  part  of 
his  poem,  and  cut  it  out. 


180  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

As  it  remained  then,  it  was  the  pathetic  story  of  a 
poet  who  comes  up  to  some  Oriental  court  with  his 
song,  but  npver  gains  a  hearing,  and  dies  neglected 
and  unknown  ;  he  does  not  even  achieve  fame  after 
death.  Ray  did  not  know  why  he  chose  an  Oriental 
setting  for  his  story,  but  perhaps  it  was  because  it  re 
moved  it  farther  from  the  fact,  and  made  it  less  recog 
nizable.  It  would  certainly  lend  itself  more  easily  to 
illustration  in  that  shape,  if  he  could  get  some  maga 
zine  to  take  it. 

When  he  decided  that  he  could  riot  show  it  to  Kane, 
and  dismissed  a  fleeting  notion  of  Mr.  Brandreth  as 
impossible,  he  thought  of  Miss  Hughes.  He  had  in 
fact  thought  of  her  first  of  all,  but  he  had  to  feign  that 
he  had  not.  There  had  lingered  in  his  mind  a  discom 
fort  concerning  her  which  he  would  have  removed 
much  sooner  if  it  had  been  the  only  discomfort  there  ; 
mixed  with  his  other  troubles,  his  shame  for  having 
indelicately  urged  her  to  speak  of  his  story  when  he 
saw  her  last,  did  not  persist  separately  or  incessantly. 
He  had  imagined  scenes  in  which  he  repaired  his  error, 
but  he  had  never  really  tried  to  do  so.  It  was  now 
available  as  a  pretext  for  showing  her  his  poem  ;  he 
could  make  it  lead  on  to  that ;  but  he  did  not  own  any 
such  purpose  to  himself  when  he  put  the  poem  into  his 
pocket  and  went  to  make  his  tardy  excuses. 

The  Hughes  family  were  still  at  table  when  Denton 
let  him  into  their  apartment,  and  old  Hughes  came 
himself  into  the  front  room  where  Ray  was  provision 
ally  shown,  and  asked  him  to  join  them. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  181 

"My  children  thought  that  I  was  wanting  in  the 
finer  hospitalities  when  you  were  here  before,  and  I 
forced  my  superabundance  of  reasons  upon  you.  I 
forget,  sometimes,  that  no  man  ever  directly  persuaded 
me,  in  my  eagerness  to  have  people  think  as  I  do. 
Will  you  show  that  you  have  forgiven  me  by  eating 
salt  with  us  ?" 

"  There  is  a  little  potato  to  eat  it  on,  Mr.  Ray," 
Mrs.  Denton  called  gayly  from  the  dining-room ;  and 
as  Ray  appeared  there,  Peace  rose  and  set  a  plate  for 
him  next  the  old  man.  In  front  were  the  twins  in 
high  chairs,  one  on  each  side  of  their  father,  who  from 
time  to  time  put  a  knife  or  fork  or  cup  and  saucer  be 
yond  their  reach,  and  left  them  to  drub  the  table  with 
nothing  more  offensive  than  their  little  soft  fists. 

There  were  not  only  potatoes,  but  some  hot  biscuits 
too,  and  there  was  tea.  Ray  had  often  sat  down  to 
no  better  meal  at  his  father's  table,  and  he  thought  it 
good  enough,  even  after  several  years'  sophistication 
in  cities. 

"There  was  to  have  been  steak,"  Mrs  Denton  went 
on,  with  a  teasing  look  at  her  husband,  "  but  Ansel 
saw  something  on  the  way  home  which  took  away  his 
appetite  so  completely  that  he  thought  we  wouldn't 
want  any  steak." 

,•  Hughes  began  to  fill  himself  with  the  tea  and  bis 
cuit  and  potatoes,  and  he  asked  vaguely,  "  What  did 
he  see?" 

"  Oh,  merely  a  family  that  had  been  put  out  on  the 
sidewalk  for  their  rent.  I  think  that. after  this,  when 


182  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Ansel  won't  come  home  by  the  Elevated,  he  ought  to 
walk  up  on  the  west  side,  so  that  he  can  get  some  good 
from  the  exercise.  He  won't  see  families  set  out  on 
the  sidewalk  in  Fifth  Avenue." 

Ray  laughed  with  her  at  her  joke,  and  Peace  smiled 
with  a  deprecating  glance  at  Den  ton.  Hughes  paid 
no  heed  to  what  they  were  saying,  and  Denton  said : 
"  The  more  we  see  and  feel  the  misery  around  us,  the 
better.  If  we  shut  our  eyes  to  it,  and  live  in  luxury 
ourselves  "  — 

"Oh,  I  don't  call  salt  and  potatoes  luxury,"  exactly, 
i  said  his  wife. 

Denton  remained  darkly  silent  a  moment,  and  then 
began  to  laugh  with  the  helplessness  of  a  melancholy 
man  when  something  breaks  through  his  sadness. 
.•"  I  should  like  to  see  a  family  set  out  on  Fifth  Avenue 
for  back  rent,"  he  said,  and  he  laughed  on  ;  and  then 
jhe  fell  suddenly  silent  again. 

Ray  said,  for  whatever  relief  it  could  give  the  situ 
ation,  that  it  was  some  comfort  to  realize  that  the  cases 
of  distress  which  one  saw  were  not  always  genuine. 
He  told  of  a  man  who  had  begged  of  him  at  a  certain 
point  that  morning,  and  then  met  him  a  few  minutes 
later,  and  asked  alms  again  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
never  begged  before  in  his  life.  "  I  recalled  myself  to 
him,  and  he  apologized  handsomely,  and  gave  me  his 
blessing." 

"  Did  he  look  as  if  he  had  got  rich  begging  ?  "  Den 
ton  asked. 

"  No ;  he  looked  as  if  he  could  have  got  a  great  deal 
richer  working,"  Ray  answered,  neatly. 


THE    AVORLD    OF    CHANCE.  183 

Mrs.  Denton  laughed,  but  her  laugh  did  not  give 
him  the  pleasure  it  would  have  done  if  Peace  had  not 
remained  looking  seriously  at  him. 

"You  think  so,"  Denton  returned.  "How  much 
should  you  say  the  average  laboring-man  with  a  family 
could  save  out  of  his  chances  of  wages  ?  " 

Hughes  caught  at  the  word  save,  and  emerged  with 
it  from  his  re  very.  "  FrugaHtjris  one  of  the  vices  we 
must  hope  to  abolish.  ^jU_is_onej)t  the  lowest  IQTms 


to  the  state  of  Ishmaelitism  in  which  we  live." 

mocked, 


"  you  want  street  beggars  to  saye,  don't  you,  so  they 
can  have  something  to  retire  on  ?  " 

"  No  ;   let  them  take  their  chance  with  the  rest," 
said  the  old  man,  with  an  imperfect  hold  of  her  irony. 
"There   are   so    many  of    them,"   Ray    suggested, 
'/they  couldn't  all  hope  to  retire  on  a  competency.     I 
ever  go  out  without  meeting  one." 

"  I  wish  there  were  more,"  said   Denton,  passion- 
tely.     I  wish  they  would  swarm  up  from  their  cellars 
nd  garrets  into  all  the  comfortable  streets  of  the  town, 
till  every  rich  man's  door-step  had  a  beggar  on  it,  to 
I  show  him  what  his  wealth  was  based  on." 
(      "  It  wouldn't  avail,"  Hughes  replied.     "  All  that  is- 
mere  sentimentality.     The  rich  man  would  give  to  the 
first  two  or  three,  and  then  he  would  begin  to  realize 
that  if  he  gave  continually  he  would  beggar  himself. 
He  would  harden  his  heart;  he  would  know,  as  he 
;    does  now,  that  he  must  not  take  the  chance  of  suffer- 


184  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

ing  for  himself  and  his  family  by  relieving  the  suf 
fering  of  others.  He  could  put  it  on  the  highest  moral 
ground." 

"  In  the  Family,"  said  Peace,  speaking  for  the  first 
time,  "  there  was  no  chance  of  suffering." 

"  No.  But  the  community  saved  itself  from  chance 
by  shutting  out  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  was  selfish, 
too.  The  Family  must  include  the  whole  world,"  said 
her  father.  "  There  is  a  passage  bearing  upon  that 
point  in  what  I  have  been  writing  to-day.  I  will  just 
read  a  part  of  it." 

He  pushed  back  his  chair,  but  Peace  said,  "  I'll  get 
your  manuscript,  father,"  and  brought  it  to  him. 

The  passage  was  a  long  one,  and  Hughes  read  it  all 
with  an  author's  unsparing  zest.  At  that  rate  Ray 
saw  no  hope  of  being  able  to  read  his  poem,  and  he 
felt  it  out  of  taste  for  Hughes  to  take  up  the  time. 
When  he  ended  at  last  and  left  the  table,  Peace  began 
to  clear  it  away,  while  Mrs.  Denton  sat  hearing  herself 
talk  and  laugh.  The  twins  had  fallen  asleep  in  their 
chairs,  and  she  let  their  father  carry,  them  off  and  be 
stow  them  in  the  adjoining  room.  As  he  took  them 
tenderly  up  from  their  chairs,  he  pressed  his  face  close 
upon  their  little  slumbering  faces,  and  mumbled  their 
fingers  with  his  bearded  lips.  The  sight  of  his  affec 
tion  impressed  Ray,  even  in  the  preoccupation  of  fol 
lowing  the  movements  of  Peace,  as  she  kept  about  her 
work. 

"  Is  he  as  homesick  as  ever  ?  "  Ray  asked  Mrs.  Den- 
ton,  when  he  was  gone. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  185 

"  Yes ;  lie's  worse,"  she  answered  lightly.  "  He 
hasn't  got  father's  faith  in  the  millennium  to  keep  him 
up.  He  would  like  to  go  back  to-morrow,  if  there  was 
anything  to  go  back  to." 

Peace  halted  a  moment  in  her  passing  to  and  fro, 
and  said,  as  if  in  deprecation  of  any  slight  or  censure 
that  her  sister's  words  might  seem  to  imply :  "  He  sees 
a  great  many  discouraging  things.  They're  doing  so 
much  now  by  process,  and  unless  an  engraver  has  a 
great  deal  of  talent,  and  can  do  the  best  kind  of  work, 
there's  very  little  work  for  him.  Ansel  has  seen  so 
many  of  them  lose  their  work  by  the  new  inventions. 
What  seems  so  bad  to  him  is  that  these  processes 
really  make  better  pictures  than  the  common  engravers 
can,  and  yet  they  make  life  worse.  He  never  did 
believe  that  an  artist  ought  to  get  a  living  by  his  art." 

"  Then  I  don't  see  why  he  objects  to  the  new  pro 
cesses,"  said  Ray,  with  the  heartlessness  which  so 
easily  passes  for  wit.  Peace  looked  at  him  with  grave 
surprise. 

Mrs.  Den  ton  laughed  over  the  cat  which  had  got  up 
in  her  lap.  "  That's  what  I  tell  him.  But  it  doesn't 
satisfy  him." 

"You  know,"  said  the  younger  sister,  with  a  re 
proach  in  her  tone,  which  brought  Ray  sensibly  under 
condemnation,  too,  "  that  he  means  that  art  must  be 
free  before  it  can  be  true,  and  that  there  can  be  no 
freedom  where  there  is  the  fear  of  want." 

"Well,"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  turning  her  head  for  a 
new  effect  of  the  sleeping  cat,  "  there  was  no  fear  of 


186  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

want   in    the    Family ;    but   there   wasn't   much   art, 
either." 

Ray  was  tempted  to  laugh,  but  he  wanted  above  all 
to  read  his  poem,  and  to  lead  up  to  it  without  delay, 
and  he  denied  himself  the  pleasure  of  a  giggle  with 
Mrs.  Denton.  "  I  suppose,"  he  said,  "  the  experiment 
of  emancipation  is  tried  on  too  small  a  scale  in  a  com 
munity." 

"  That  is  what  father  thinks,"  said  Peace.  "  That 
is  why  he  wants  the  whole  world  to  be  free." 

"  Yes,"  said  Ray,  aware  of  a  relenting  in  her  towards 
liimself ;  and  he  added,  with  apparent  inconsequence : 
\^         i '«  Perhaps L  it__would  Jhelp   forward^ ..the.  time  for  it  if 
.every  artist  could  express  his  feeling  about  it,  or  repre- 
"    IK      <v      )  sent  it  somehow." 
typ*      (*P     I      "rJ-dofrHTsee  exactly  how  they  could  in  a  picture  or 


y      Apva  statue,"  said  Mrs.  Denton. 

"  No,"  Ray  assented  from  the  blind  alley  where  he 
had  unexpectedly  brought  up.  He  broke  desperately 
from  it,  and  said,  more  toward  Peace  than  toward  her 
sister,  "  I  have  been  trying  to  turn  my  own  little  dis 
appointment  into  poetry.  You  know,"  he  added? 
"  that  Chapley  &  Co.  have  declined  my  book  ?  " 

"Yes,"  she  admitted,  with  a  kind  of  shyness. 

"  I  wonder,"  and  here  Ray  took  the  manuscript  out 
of  his  pocket,  "  whether  you  would  let  me  read  you 
some  passages  of  my  poem." 

Mrs.  Denton  assented  eagerly,  and  Peace  less 
eagerly,  but  with  an  interest  that  was  enough  for  him. 
Before  he  began  to  read,  Mrs.  Denton  said  a  number 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  187 

of  things  that  seemed  suddenly  to  have  accumulated 
in  her  mind,  mostly  irrelevant ;  she  excused  herself  for 
leaving  the  room,  and  begged  Ray  to  wait  till  she 
came  back.  Several  times  during  the  reading  she 
escaped  and  returned  ;  the  poet  finished  in  one  of  her 
absences. 


XXIV. 

"You  see,"  Ray  said,  "it's  merely  a  fragment." 
He  wiped  the  perspiration  from  his  forehead. 

"  Of  course,"  the  girl  answered,  with  a  sigh.  "  Isn't 
disappointment  always  fragmentary  ?  "  she  asked,  sadly. 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Why,  happiness  is  like  something  complete ;  and 
disappointment  like  something  broken  off,  to  me.  A 
story  that  ends  well  seems  rounded  ;  and  one  that  ends 
badly  leaves  you  waiting,  as  you  do  just  after  some 
one  dies." 

"Is  that  why  you  didn't  like  my  story?"  Ray 
asked,  imprudently.  He  added  quickly,  at  an  embar 
rassment  which  came  into  her  face,  "  Oh,  I  didn't 
mean  to  add  to  my  offence !  I  came  here  partly  to 
excuse  it.  I  was  too  persistent  the  other  night." 

"  Oh,  no  !  " 

"  Yes,  I  was.  I  had  no  right  to  an  opinion  from 
you.  I  knew  it  at  the  time,  but  I  couldn't  help  it. 
You  were  right  to  refuse.  But  you  can  tell  me  how 
my  poem  strikes  you.  It  isn't  offered  for  publica 
tion  ! " 

He  hoped  that  she  would  praise  some  passages  that 
he  thought  fine  ;  but  she  began  to  speak  of  the  motive, 
and  he  saw  that  she  had  not  missed  anything,  that  she 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  189 

had  perfectly  seized  his  intention.  She  talked  to  him 
of  it  as  if  it  were  the  work  of  some  one  else,  and  he 
said  impulsively,  "  If  I  had  you  to  criticise  my  actions 
beforehand,  I  should  not  be  so  apt  to  make  a  fool  of 
myself." 

Mrs.  Denton  came  back.  "I  ran  off  toward  the 
last.  I  didn't  want  to  be  here  when  Peace  began  to 
criticise.  She's  so  severe." 

"  She  hasn't  been  at  all  severe  this  time,"  said  Ray. 

"  I  don't  see  how  she  could  be,"  Mrs.  Denton  re 
turned.  "  All  that  I  heard  was  splendid." 

"  It's  merely  a  fragment,"  said  Ray,  with  grave  sat 
isfaction  in  her  flattery. 

"  You  must  finish  it,  and  read  us  the  rest  of  it." 

Ray  looked  at  Peace,  arid  something  in  her  face 
made  him  say,  "  I  shall  never  finish  it ;  it  isn't  worth 
it," 

"  Did  Peace  say  that  ?  " 

"No." 

Mrs.  Denton  laughed.  "  That's  just  like  Peace. 
She  makes  other  people  say  the  disagreeable  things 
she  thinks  about  them." 

"What  a  mysterious  power!"  said  Ray.  "Is  it 
hypnotic  suggestion  ?  " 

He  spoke  lightly  toward  Peace,  but  her  sister  an 
swered  :  "  Oh,  we're  full  of  mysteries  in  this  house. 
Did  you  know  that  my  husband  had  a  Voice  ?  " 

"  A  voice  !     Is  a,  voice  mysterious  ?  " 

"  This  one  is.  It's  an  internal  Voice.  It  tells  him 
what  to  do." 


190  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Oh,  like  the  demon  of  Socrates." 

"  I  hope  it  isn't  a  demon  !  "  said  Mrs.  Denton. 

"  That  depends  upon  what  it  tells  him  to  do,"  said 
Ray.  In  Socrates'  day  a  familiar  spirit  could  be  a 
demon  without  being  at  all  bad.  How  proud  you 
must  be  to  have  a  thing  like  that  in  the  family !  " 

"I  don't  know.  It  has  its  inconveniences,  some 
times.  When  it  tells  him  to  do  what  we  don't  want 
him  to,"  said  Mrs.  Denton. 

"  Oh,  but  think  of  the  compensations  !  "  Ray  urged. 
"  Why,  it's  equal  to  a  ghost." 

"  I  suppose  it  is  a  kind  of  ghost,"  said  Mrs.  Denton, 
and  Ray  fancied  she  had  the  pride  we  all  feel  in  any 
alliance,  direct  or  indirect,  with  the  supernatural. 
"  Do  you  believe  in  dreams  ?  "  she  asked  abruptly. 

"  Bad  ones,  I  do,"  said  Ray.  "  We  always  expect 
bad  dreams  and  dark  presentiments  to  come  true, 
don't  we !  " 

"  I  don't  know.  My  husband  does.  He  has  a 
Dream  as  well  as  a  Voice." 

"  Oh,  indeed !  "  said  Ray  ;  and  he  added  :  "I  see. 
The  Voice  is  the  one  he  talks  with  in  his  sleep." 

The  flippant  suggestion  amused  Mrs.  Denton  ;  but 
a  shadow  of  pain  came  over  Peace's  face,  that  made 
Ray  wish  to  get  away  from  the  mystery  he  had 
touched;  she  might  be  a  believer  in  it,  or  ashamed 
of  it. 

"  I  wonder,"  he  added,  "  why  we  never  expect  our 
day-dreams  to  come  true  ?  " 

"  Perhaps    because    they're    never    bad    ones  —  be- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  191 

cause  we  know  we're  just  making  them,"  said  Mrs. 
Denton. 

"  It.  must  be  that !  But,  do  we  always  make  them  ? 
Sometimes  my  day-dreams  seem  to  make  themselves, 
and  they  keep  on  doing  it  so  long  that  they  tire  me 
to  death.  They're  perfect  daymares." 

"  How  awful !  The  only  way  would  be  to  go  to 
sleep,  if  you  wanted  to  get  rid  of  them." 

"  Yes  ;  and  that  isn't  so  easy  as  wraking  up.  Any 
body  can  wake  up  ;  a  man  can  wake  up  to  go  to  exe 
cution  ;  but  it  takes  a  very  happy  man  to  go  to  sleep." 

The  recognition  of  this  fact  reminded  Ray  that  he 
was  himself  a  very  unhappy  man  ;  he  had  forgotten  it 
for  the  time. 

"  He  might  go  into  society  and  get  rid  of  them  that 
way,"  Mrs.  Denton  suggested,  with  an  obliquity  which 
he  was  too  simply  masculine  to  perceive.  "  I  suppose 
you  go  into  society  a  good  deal,  Mr.  Ray  ?  " 

Peace  made  a  little  movement  as  of  remonstrance, 
but  she  did  not  speak,  and  Ray  answered  willingly : 
"  /  go  into  society  ?  I  have  been  inside  of  just  one 
house  —  or  flat  —  besides  this,  since  I  came  to  New 
York." 

"  Why  !  "  said  Mrs.  Denton. 

She  seemed  to  be  going  to  say  something  more,  but 
she  stopped  at  a  look  from  her  sister,  and  left  Ray 
free  to  go  on  or  not,  as  he  chose.  He  told  them  it 
was  Mr.  Brandreth's  flat  he  had  been  in  ;  at  some 
little  hints  of  curiosity  from  Mrs.  Denton,  he  de 

scribed  it  to  her. 
13 


192  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  I  have  some  letters  from  people  in  Midland,  but  I 
haven't  presented  them  yet,"  he  added  at  the  end. 
"  The  Branclreths  are  all  I  know  of  society." 

"  They're  much  more  than  we  know.  Well,  it 
seems  like  fairyland,"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  in  amiable 
self-derision.  "  I  used  to  think  that  was  the  way  we 
should  live  when  we  left  the  Family.  I  suppose  there 
are  people  in  New  York  that  would  think  it  was  like 
fairyland  to  live  like  us,  and  not  all  in  one  room. 
Ansel  is  always  preaching  that  when  I  grumble." 

The  cat  sprang  up  into  her  lap,  and  she  began  to 
smooth  its  long  flank,  and  turn  her  head  from  side  to 
side,  admiring  its  enjoyment. 

"  Well,"  Ray  said,  "  whatever  we  do,  we  are  pretty 
sure  to  be  sorry  we  didn't  do  something  else." 

He  was  going  to  lead  up  to  his  own  disappointments 
by  this  commonplace,  but  Mrs.  Denton  interposed. 

"  Oh,  I'm  not  sorry  we  left  the  Family,  if  that's 
what  you  mean.  There's  some  chance,  here,  and 
there  everything  went  by  rule ;  you  had  your  share  of 
the  work,  and  you  knew  just  what  you  had  to  expect 
every  day.  I  used  to  say  I  wished  something  ivrong 
would  happen,  just  so  as  to  have  something  happen.  I 
believe  it  was  more  than  half  that  that  got  father  out, 
too,"  she  said,  with  a  look  at  her  sister. 

"I  thought,"  said  Ray,  "but  perhaps  I  didn't  under 
stand  him,  that  your  father  wanted  to  make  the 
world  over  on  the  image  of  your  community." 

"  I  guess  he  wanted  to  have  the  fun  of  chancing  it, 
too,"  said  Mrs.  Denton.  "Of  course  he  wants  to 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  193 

make  the  world  over,  but  he  has  a  pretty  good  time 
as  it  is ;  and  I'm  glad  of  all  I  did  and  said  to  get  him 
into  it.  He  had  no  chance  to  bring  his  ideas  to  bear 
on  it  in  the  Family." 

"Then  it  was  you  who  got  him  out  of  the  com 
munity,"  said  Ray. 

"I  did  my  best,"  said  Mrs.  Den  ton.  "But  I  can't 
say  I  did  it,  altogether." 

"Did  you  help?"  he  asked  Peace. 

"  I  wished  father  to  do  what  he  thought  was  right. 
He  had  been  doubtful  about  the  life  there  for  a  good 
while — whether  it  was  really  doing  anything  for 
humanity." 

She  used  the  word  with  no  sense  of  cant  in  it ;  Ray 
could  perceive  that. 

"And  do  you  ever  wish  you  were  back  in  the 
Family?" 

Mrs.  Denton  called  out  joyously:  "Why,  there  is 
no  Family  to  be  back  in,  I'm  thankful  to  say!  Didn't 
you  know  that?" 

"  I  forgot."  Ray  smiled,  as  he  pursued,  "  Well,  if 
there  was  one  to  be  back  in,  would  you  like  to  be 
there,  Miss  Hughes  ?  " 

"  I  can't  tell,"  she  answered,  writh  a  trouble  in  her 
voice.  "When  I'm  not  feeling  very  strong  or  well,  I 
should.  And  when  I  see  so  many  people  struggling 
so  hard  here,  and  failing  after  all  they  do,  I  wish  they 
could  be  where  there  was  no  failure,  and  no  danger  of 
it.  In  the  Family  we  were  safe,  and  we  hadn't  any 


194 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


""We  hadn't  any  choice,  either,"  said  her  sister. 

"What  choice  has  a  man  who  doesn't  know  where 
the  next  day's  work  is  coming  from?" 

Hay  looked  round  to  find  that  Denton  had  entered 
behind  them  from  the  room  where  he  had  been,  and 
was  sitting  beside  the  window  apparently  listening  to 
their  talk.  There  was  something  uncanny  in  the  fact 
of  his  unknown  presence,  though  neither  of  the  sisters 
seemed  to  feel  it. 

"Oh,  you're  there,"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  without 
turning  from  her  cat.  "  Well,  I  suppose  that's  a  ques- 
•tion  that  must  come  home  to  you  more  and  more. 
Did  you  ever  hear  of  such  a  dreadful  predicament  as 
my  husband's  in,  Mr.  Ray  ?  He's  just  hit  on  an  in 
vention  that's  going  to  make  us  rich,  and  throw  all 
the  few  remaining  engravers  out  of  work,  when  he 
gets  it  finished."  Her  husband's  face  clouded,  but 
she  went  on :  "  His  only  hope  is  that  the  invention  will 
turn  out  a  failure.  You  don't  have  any  such  com 
plications  in  your  work,  do  you,  Mr.  Ray  ?  " 

"No,"  said  Ray,  thinking  what  a  good  situation  the 
predicament  would  be,  in  a  story.  "If  they  had  taken 
my  novel,  and  published  an  edition  of  fifty  thousand, 
I  don't  see  how  it  could  have  reduced  a  single  author 
to  penury.  But  I  don't  believe  I  could  resist  the  ad 
vances  of  a  publisher,  even  if  I  knew  it  might  throw 
authors  out  of  work  right  and  left.  I  could  support 
their  families  till  they  got  something  to  do." 

"Yes,  you  might  do  that,  Ansel,"  his  wife  sug 
gested,  with  a  slanting  smile  at  him.  "  I  only  hope 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  195 

we  may  have  the  opportunity.  But  probably  it  will 
be  as  hard  to  get  a  process  accepted  as  a  book." 

"That  hasn't  anything  to  do  with  the  question," 
Denton  broke  out.  "  The  question  is  whether  a  man 
ought  not  to  kill  his  creative  thought  as  he  would  a 
snake,  if  he  sees  that  there  is  any  danger  of  its  taking 
away  work  another  man  lives  by.  That  is  what  I 
look  at." 

"And  father,"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  whimsically,  "is 
so  high-principled  that  he  won't  let  us  urge  on  the 
millenium  by  having  pandemonium  first.  If  we  were 
allowed  to  do  that,  Ansel  might  quiet  his  conscience 
by  reflecting  that  the  more  men  he  threw  out  of 
work,  the  sooner  the  good  time  would  come.  I  don't 
see  why  that  isn't  a  good  plan,  and  it  would  work  in 
so  nicely  with  what  we  want  to  do.  Just  make  every 
thing  so  bad  people  cannot  bear  it,  and  then  they  will 
rise  up  in  their  might  and  make  it  better  for  them 
selves.  Don't  you  think  so,  Mr.  Ray?" 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know,"  he  said. 

All  this  kind  of  thinking  and  feeling,  which  was  a 

o  c?" 

part  and  parcel  of  these  people's  daily  life,  was  alien 
to  his  habit  of  mind.  He  grasped  it  feebly  and  re 
luctantly,  without  the  power  or  the  wish  to  follow  it  to 
conclusions,  whether  it  was  presented  ironically  by  Mrs. 
Denton,  or  with  a  fanatical  sincerity  by  her  husband. 

"  No,  no !  That  won't  do,"  Denton  said.  "  I  have 
tried  to  see  that  as  a  possible  thoroughfare ;  but  it 
isn't  possible.  If  we  were  dealing  with  statistics  it 
would  do  ;  but  it's  men  we're  dealing  with  :  men  like 


196  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

ourselves  that  have  women  and  children  dependent 
on  them." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  that,  Ansel,"  Peace 
said,  gently. 

"  Yes,"  he  returned,  bitterly,  "  whichever  way  I 
turn,  the  way  is  barred.  My  hands  are  tied,  whatever 
I  try  to  do.  Some  one  must  be  responsible.  Some 
one  must  atone.  Who  shall  it  be  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  with  a  look  of  comic 
resignation,  "  it  seems  to  be  a  pretty  personal  thing, 
after  all,  in  spite  of  father's  philosophy.  I  always 
supposed  that  when  we  came  into  the  world  we  should 
have  an  election,  and  vote  down  all  these  difficulties 
by  an  overwhelming  majority." 

Ray  quoted,  musingly : 

"  The  world  is  out  of  joint :  —  O  cursed  spite  ! 
That  ever  I  was  born  to  set  it  right !  " 

"Yes?     Who  says  that?" 

"  Hamlet." 

u  Oh  yes.  Well,  I  feel  just  exactly  as  Ham  does 
about  it." 

Denton  laughed  wildly  out  at  her  saucy  drolling, 
and  she  said,  as  if  his  mirth  somehow  vexed  her, 

"  I  should  think  if  you're  so  much  troubled  by  that 
hard  question  of  yours,  you  would  get  your  Voice  to 
say  something." 

Her  husband  rose,  and  stood  looking  down,  while  a 
knot  gathered  between  his  gloomy  eyes.  Then  he 
turned  and  left  the  room  without  answering  her. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  197 

She  sent  a  laugh  after  him.  "  Sometimes,"  she  said 
to  the  others,  "the  Voice  doesn't  know  any  better 
than  the  rest  of  us." 

Peace  remained  looking  gravely  at  her  a  moment, 
and  then  she  followed  Denton  out  of  the  room. 

Mrs.  Denton  began  to  ask  Ray  about  Mrs.  Bran- 
dreth  and  Mrs.  Chapley,  pressing  him  with  questions 
as  to  what  kind  of  people  they  really  were,  and  whether 
they  were  proud ;  she  wondered  why  they  had  never 
come  to  call  upon  her.  It  would  all  have  been  a  little 
vulgar  if  it  had  not  been  so  childlike  and  simple.  Ray 
was  even  touched  by  it  when  he  thought  that  the  chief 
concern  of  these  ladies  was  to  find  out  from  him  just 
what  sort  of  crank  her  father  was,  and  to  measure  his 
influence  for  evil  on  Mr.  Chapley. 

At  the  same  time  he  heard  Peace  talking  to  Denton 
in  a  tone  of  entreaty  and  pacification.  She  staid  so 
long  that  Ray  had  risen  to  go  when  she  came  back. 
He  had  hoped  for  a  moment  alone  with  her  at  parting, 
so  that  he  might  renew  in  better  form  the  excuses  that 
he  pretended  he  had  come  to  make.  But  the  presence 
of  her  sister  took  all  the  seriousness  and  delicacy  from 
them  ;  he  had  to  make  a  kind  of  joke  of  them  ;  and  he 
could  not  tell  her  at  all  of  the  mysterious  message 
from  Mr.  Brandreth  about  the  friend  to  whom  he 
wished  to  submit  his  book,  and  of  the  final  pang  of 
disappointment  which  its  immediate  return  had  given 
him.  He  had  meant  that  she  should  say  something  to 
comfort  him  for  this,  but  he  had  to  forego  his  intended 
consolation. 


XXY. 

RAY  had  no  doubt  that  Kane  was  the  court  of  final 
resort  which  the  case  against  his  novel  had  been  ap 
pealed  to,  and  he  thought  it  hard  that  he  should  have 
refused  to  give  it  a  last  chance,  or  even  to  look  at  it 
again.  Surely  it  was  not  so  contemptible  as  that,  so 
hopelessly  bad  that  a  man  who  seemed  his  friend  could 
remember  nothing  in  it  that  would  make  it  valuable  in 
a  second  reading.  If  the  fault  were  not  in  the  book, 
then  it  must  be  in  the  friend,  and  Ray  renounced  old 
Kane  by  every  means  he  could  command.  He  could 
not  make  it  an  open  question  ;  he  could  only  treat  him 
more  and  more  coldly,  and  trust  to  Kane's  latent  sense 
of  guilt  for  the  justification  of  his  behavior.  But  Kane 
was  either  so  hardened,  or  else  regarded  his  own  ac 
tion  as  so  venial,  or  perhaps  believed  it  so  right,  that 
he  did  not  find  Ray's  coldness  intelligible. 

"My  dear  young  friend,"  he  frankly  asked,  "  is 
there  anything  between  us  but  our  disparity  of  years  ? 
That  existed  from  the  first  moment  of  our  acquaint 
ance.  I  have  consoled  myself  at  times  with  the  notion 
of  our  continuing  together  in  an  exemplary  friendship, 
you  growing  older  and  wiser,  and  I  younger  and  less 
wise,  if  possible,  like  two  Swedenborgian  spirits  in  the 
final  state.  But  evidently  something  has  happened  to 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  199 

tinge  our  amity  with  a  grudge  in  your  mind.  Do  you 
object  to  saying  just  what  property  in  me  has  imparted 
this  unpleasant  discoloration  to  it  ?  " 

Ray  was  ashamed  to  say,  or  rather  unable.  He 
answered  that  nothing  was  the  matter,  and  that  he 
did  not  know  what  Kane  meant.  He  was  obliged  to 
prove  this  by  a  show  of  cordiality,  which  he  began 
perhaps  to  feel  when  he  reasoned  away  his  first  resent 
ment.  Kane  had  acted  quite  within  his  rights,  and  if 
there  was  to  be  any  such  thing  as  honest  criticism,  the 
free  censure  of  a  friend  must  be  suffered  and  even  de 
sired.  He  said  this  to  himself  quite  heroically;  he 
tried  hard  to  be  ruled  by  a  truth  so  obvious. 

In  other  things  his  adversity  demoralized  him,  for  a 
time.  He  ceased  to  live  in  the  future,  as  youth  does 
and  should  do ;  he  lived  carelessly  and  wastefully  in 
the  present.  With  nothing  in  prospect,  it  was  no 
longer  important  how  his  time  or  money  went ;  he  did 
not  try  to  save  either.  He  never  finished  his  poem, 
and  he  did  not  attempt  anything  else. 

In  the  midst  of  his  listlessness  and  disoccupation 
there  came  a  letter  from  Hanks  Brothers  asking  if  he 
could  not  give  a  little  more  social  gossip  in  his  corre 
spondence  for  the  Echo  ;  they  reminded  him  that  there 
was  nothing  people  liked  so  much  as  personalities. 
Ray  scornfully  asked  himself,  How  should  he,  who 
knew  only  the  outsides~of  houses,  supply  social  gossip, 
even  if  he  had  been  willing?  He  made  a  sarcastic 
reply  to  Hanks  Brothers,  intimating  his  readiness  to 
relinquish  the  correspondence  if  it  were  not  to  their 


200  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

taste ;  and  they  took  him  at  his  word,  and  wrote  that 
they  would  hereafter  make  use  of  a  syndicate  letter. 

It  had  needed  this  blow  to  rouse  him  from  his  reck 
less  despair.  If  he  were  defeated  now,  it  would  be  in 
the  face  of  all  the  friends  who  had  believed  in  him 
and  expected  success  of  him.  His  motive  was  not 
high ;  it  was  purely  egoistic  at  the  best ;  but  he  did 
not  know  this  ;  he  had  a  sense  of  virtue  in  sending  his 
book  off  to  a  Boston  publisher  without  undoing  the 
inner  wrappings  in  which  the  last  New  York  pub 
lisher  had  returned  it. 

Then  he  went  round  to  ask  Mr.  Brandreth  if  he 
r  knew  of  any  literary  or  clerical  or  manual  work  he 
I  could  get  to  do.  The  industrial  fury  which  has  sub 
dued  a  continent,  and  brought  it  under  the  hard  Ameri 
can  hand,  wrought  in  him,  according  to  his  quality,  and 
he  was  not  only  willing  but  eager  to  sacrifice  the  scru- 
'  pies  of  delicacy  he  had  in  appealing  to  a  man  whom 
he  had  sought  first  on  such  different  terms.  His  only 
question  was  how  to  get  his  business  quickly,  clearlv, 
and  fully  before  him. 

Mr.  Brandreth  received  him  with  a  gayety  that  put 
this  quite  out  of  his  mind ;  and  he  thought  the  pub 
lisher  was  going  to  tell  him  that  he  had  decided,  after 
all,  to  accept  his  novel. 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Ray,"  Mr.  Brandreth  called  out  at  sight 
of  him,  "  I  was  just  sending  a  note  to  you  !  Sit  down 
a  moment,  won't  you  ?  The  editor  of  Every  Evening 
was  in  here  just  now,  and  he  happened  to  say  he 
wished  he  knew  some  one  who  couid  make  him  a  syn- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  201 

opsis  of  a  rather  important  book  he's  had  an  advanced 
copy  of  from  the  other  side.  It's  likely  to  be  of  par 
ticular  interest  in  connection  with  Coquelin's  visit ;  it's 
a  study  of  French  comic  acting  from  Moliere  down ; 
and  I  happened  to  think  of  you.  You  know  French  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,  thank  you  —  to  read.  You're  very 
kind,  Mr.  Brandreth,  to  think  of  me." 

"  Oh,  not  at  all !  I  didn't  know  whether  you  ever 
did  the  kind  of  thing  the  Every  Evening  wants,  or 
whether  you  were  not  too  busy  ;  but  I  thought  I'd 
drop  an  anchor  to  windward  for  you,  on  the  chance 
that  you  might  like  to  do  it." 

"  I  should  like  very  much  to  do  it ;  and  "  — 

"I'll  tell  you  why  I  did  it,"  Mr.  Brandreth  in 
terrupted,  radiantly.  "  I  happened  to  know  they're 
making  a  change  in  the  literary  department  of  the 
Every  Evening,  and  I  thought  that  if  this  bit  of  work 
would  let  you  show  your  hand  —  See  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  and  I'm  everlastingly  "  — 

"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all !  "  Mr.  Brandreth  opened 
the  letter  he  was  holding,  and  gave  Ray  a  note  that 
it  inclosed.  "  That's  an  introduction  to  the  editor  of 
the  Every  Evening,  and  you'll  strike  him  at  the  office 
about  now,  if  you'd  like  to  see  him." 

Ray  caught  with  rapture  the  hand  Mr.  Brandreth 
offered  him.  "  I  don't  know  what  to  say  to  you,  but 
I'm  extremely  obliged.  I'll  go  at  once."  He  started 
to  the  door,  and  turned.  "  I  hope  Mrs.  Brandreth  is 
well,  and — and — the  baby  ?  " 

"  Splendidly.     I  snail  want   to  have  you  up  there 


202  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

again  as  soon  as  we  can  manage  it.  Why  haven't  you 
been  at  Mrs.  Chapley's  ?  Didn't  you  get  her  card  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  but  I  haven't  been  very  good  company  of 
late.  I  didn't  want  to  have  it  generally  known." 

"I  understand.  Well,  now  you  must  cheer  up. 
Good-by,  and  good  luck  to  you  !  " 

All  the  means  of  conveyance  were  too  slow  for 
Ray's  eagerness,  and  he  walked.  On  his  way  down 
to  that  roaring  and  seething  maelstrom  of  business, 
whose  fierce  currents  swept  all  round  the  Every  Even- 
i$g  office,  he  painted  his  future  as  critic  of  the  journal 
with  minute  detail ;  he  had  died  chief  owner  and  had 
his  statue  erected  to  his  memory  in  Park  Square  before 
he  crossed  that  space  and  plunged  into  one  of  the 
streets  beyond. 

He  was  used  to  newspaper  offices,  and  he  was  not 
surprised  to  find  the  editorial  force  of  the  Every  Even 
ing  housed  in  a  series  of  dens,  opening  one  beyond  the 
other  till  the  last,  with  the  chief  in  it,  looked  down 
on  the  street  from  which  he  climbed.  He  thought  it 
.ill  fit  enough,  for  the  present ;  but,  while  he  still  dwelt 
in  the  future,  and  before  the  office-boy  had  taken  his 
letter  from  him  to  the  chief,  he  swiftly  flung  up  a 
building  for  the  Every  Evening  as  lofty  and  as  ugly  as 
any  of  the  many-storied  towers  that  rose  about  the 
frantic  neighborhood.  He  blundered  upon  two  other 
I  writers  before  he  reached  the  chief ;  one  of  them  looked 
|  up  from  his  desk,  and  roared  at  him  in  unintelligible 
affliction  ;  the  other  simply  wagged  his  head,  without 
lifting  it,  in  the  direction  of  the  final  room,  where  Ray 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  203 

found  himself  sitting  beside  the  editor-in-chief,  without 
well  knowing  how  he  got  there.  The  editor  did  not 
seem  to  know  either,  or  to  care  that  he  was  there,  for 
some  time ;  he  kept  on  looking  at  this  thing  and  that 
tiling  on  the  table  before  him ;  at  everything  but  the 
letter  Ray  had  sent  in.  When  he  did  take  that  up  he 
did  not  look  at  Ray ;  and  while  he  talked  with  him  he 
scarcely  glanced  at  him  ;  there  were  moments  when  he 
seemed  to  forget  there  was  anybody  there ;  and  Ray's 
blood  began  to  burn  with  a  sense  of  personal  indignity. 
He  wished  to  go  away,  and  leave  the  editor  to  find  him 
gone  at  his  leisure ;  but  he  felt  bound  to  Mr.  Bran- 
clreth,  and  he  staid.  At  last  the  editor  took  up  a  book 
,from  the  litter  of  newspapers  and  manuscripts  before 
him,  and  "said : 

"  What  we  want  is  a  rapid  and  attractive  resume 
of  this  book,  with  particular  reference  to  Coquelin  and 
his  place  on  the  stage  and  in  art.  No  one  else  has 
the  book  yet,  and  we  expect  to  use  the  article  from  it 
in  our  Saturday  edition.  See  what  you  can  do  with 
it,  and  bring  it  here  by  ten  to-morrow.  You  can  run 
from  one  to  two  thousand  words  —  not  over  two." 

He  handed  Ray  the  book  and  turned  so  definitively 
to  his  papers  and  letters  again  that  Ray  had  no 
choice  but  to  go.  He  left  with  the  editor  a  self -re 
spectful  parting  salutation,  which  the  editor  evidently 
had  no  use  for,  and  no  one  showed  a  consciousness  of 
him,  not  even  the  office-boy,  as  he  went  out. 

He  ground  his  teeth  in  resentment,  but  he  resolved 
to  take  his  revenge  by  making  literature  of  that 


204  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

resume,  and  compelling  the  attention  of  the  editor  to 
him  through  his  work.  He  lost  no  time  in  setting 
about  it ;  he  began  to  read  the  book  at  once,  and  he 
had  planned  his  article  from  it  before  he  reached 
his  hotel.  He  finished  it  before  he  slept,  and  he  went 
to  bed  as  the  first  milkman  sent  his  wail  through  the 

O 

street  below.  His  heart  had  worked  itself  free  of  its 
bitterness,  and  seemed  to  have  imparted  its  lightness 
to  the  little  paper,  which  he  was  not  ashamed  of  even 
when  he  read  it  after  he  woke  from  the  short  rest  he 
suffered  himself.  He  was  sure  that  the  editor  of 
Every  Evening  must  feel  the  touch  which  he  knew  he 
had  imparted  to  it,  and  he  made  his  way  to  him  with 
none  of  the  perturbation,  if  none  of  the  romantic 
interest  of  the  day  before. 

The  editor  took  the  long  slips  which  Ray  had 
written  his  copy  on,  and  struck  them  open  with  his 
right  hand  while  he  held  them  with  his  left. 

"  Why  the  devil,"  he  demanded,  "  don't  you  write  a 
better  hand?"  Before  Ray  could  formulate  an 
answer,  he  shouted  again,  "Why  the  devil  don't  you 
begin  with  a,  fact  ?  " 

He  paid  no  heed  to  the  defence  which  the  hurt 
author-pride  of  the  young  fellow  spurred  him  to  make, 
but  went  on  reading  the  article  through.  When  he 
had  finished  he  threw  it  down  and  drew  toward  him  a 
narrow  book  like  a  check-book,  and  wrote  in  it,  and 
then  tore  out  the  page,  and  gave  it  to  Ray.  It  was 
an  order  on  the  counting-room  for  fifteen  dollars. 

Ray  had  a  weak  moment  of  rage  in  which  he  wished 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  205 

to  tear  it  up  and  fling  it  in  the  editor's  face.  But  he 
overcame  himself  and  put  the  order  in  his  pocket. 
He  vowed  never  to  use  it,  even  to  save  himself  from 
starving,  but  he  kept  it  because  lie  was  ashamed  to  do 
otherwise.  Even  when  the  editor  at  the  sound  of  his 
withdrawal  called  out,  without  looking  round,  "  What 
is  your  address  ? "  he  told  him ;  but  this  time  he 
wasted  no  parting  salutations  upon  him. 

The  hardest  part  was  now  to  make  his  acknowledg 
ments  to  Mr.  Brandreth,  without  letting  him  know 
how  little  his  personal  interest  in  the  matter  had 
availed.  He  succeeded  in  keeping  everything  from 
him  but  the  fact  that  his  work  had  been  accepted,  and 
Mr.  Brandreth  was  delighted. 

"  Well,  that's  first-rate,  as  far  as  it  goes,  and  I  be 
lieve  it's  going  to  lead  to  something  permanent. 
You'll  be  the  literary  man  of  Every  Evening  yet ;  and 
I  understand  the  paper's  making  its  way.  It's  a  good 
thing  to  be  connected  with;  thoroughly  clean  and 
decent,  and  yet  lively." 

Though  Ray  hid  his  wrath  from  Mr.  Brandreth, 
because  it  seemed  due  to  his  kindness,  he  let  it  break 
out  before  Kane,  whom  he  found  dining  alone  at  his 
hotel  that  evening  when  he  came  down  from  his  room. 

"  I  don't  know  whether  I  ouirht  to  sit  down  with 

O 

you,"  he  began,  when  Kane  begged  him  to  share  his 
table.  "  I've  just  been  through  the  greatest  humilia 
tion  I've  had  yet.  It's  so  thick  on  me  that  I'm  afraid 
some  of  it  will  come  off.  And  it  wasn't  my  fault, 
either  ;  it  was  my  misfortune." 


200  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"We  can  bear  to  suffer  for  our  misfortunes,"  said 
Kane,  dreamily.  "  To  suffer  for  our  faults  would  be 
intolerable,  because  then  we  couldn't  preserve  our 
self-respect.  Don't  you  see  ?  But  the  consciousness 
that  our  anguish  is  undeserved  is  consoling ;  it's  even 
flattering." 

"I'm  sorry  to  deprive  you  of  a  Hard  Saying,  if 
that's  one,  but  my  facts  are  against  you." 

"Ah,  but  facts  must  always  yield  to  reasons,"  Kane 
began. 

Ray  would  not  be  stopped.  But  he  suddenly  caught 
the  humorous  aspect  of  his  adventure  with  the  editor 
of  Every  Evening,  and  gave  it  with  artistic  zest.  He 
did  not  spare  his  ridiculous  hopes  or  his  ridiculous 
pangs. 

From  time  to  time  Kane  said,  at  some  neat  touch : 
"  Oh.  good  !  "  "  Very  good !  "  "  Capital !  "  "  Charm 
ing,  charming!"  "When  Ray  stopped,  he  drew  a 
long  breath,  and  sighed  out :  "  Yes,  I  know  the  man. 
He's  not  a  bad  fellow.  He's  a  very  good  fellow." 

"A  good  fellow?"  Ray  demanded.  "Why  did  he 
behave  like  a  brute,  then  ?  He's  the  only  man  who's 
been  rude  to  me  in  New  York.  Why  couldn't  he 
have  shown  me  the  same  courtesy  that  all  the  pub 
lishers  have?  Every  one  of  them  has  behaved  de 
cently,  though  none  of  them,  confound  them !  wanted 
my  book." 

"  Ah,"  said  Kane,  "  his  conditions  were  different. 
They  had  all  some  little  grace  of  leisure,  and  accord 
ing  to  your  report  he  had  none.  I  don't  know  a  more 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  207 

pathetic  picture  than  you've  drawn  of  him,  trying  to 
grasp  all  those  details  of  his  work,  and  yet  seize  a 
new  one.  It's  frightful.  Don't  you  feel  the  pathos 
of  it  ?  " 

"  No  man  ought  to  place  himself  in  conditions  where 
he  has  to  deny  himself  the  amenities  of  life,"  Ray  per 
sisted,  and  he  felt  that  he  had  made  a  point,  and 
languaged  it  well.  "  He's  to  blame  if  he  does." 

"  Oh,  no  man  willingly  places  himself  in  hateful  or 
injurious  conditions,"  said  Kane.  "  He  is  pushed  into 
them,  or  they  grow  up  about  him  through  the  social 
action.  He's  what  they  shape  him  to,  and  when  he's 
taken  his  shape  from  circumstances,  he  knows  in 
stinctively  that  he  won't  fit  into  others.  So  he  stays 
put.  You  would  say  that  the  editor  of  Every  Evening 
ought  to  forsake  his  conditions  at  any  cost,  and  go 
somewhere  else  and  be  a  civilized  man;  but  he 
couldn't  do  that  without  breaking  himself  in  pieces  arid 
putting  himself  together  again.  Why  did  I  never  go 
back  to  my  own  past  ?  I  look  over  my  life  in  New 
York,  and  it  is  chiefly  tiresome  and  futile  in  the 
retrospect;  I  couldn't  really  say  why  I've  staid  here. 
I  don't  expect  anything  of  it,  and  yet  I  can't  leave  it. 
The  Every  Evening  man  does  expect  a  great  deal  of 
his  conditions ;  he  expects  success,  and  I  understand 
he's  getting  it.  But  he  didn't  place  himself  in  his 
conditions  in  any  dramatic  \vay,  and  he  couldn't  dra 
matically  break  with  them.  They  may  be  gradually 
detached  from  him  and  then  he  may  slowly  change. 

Of    course    there    are   signal   cases    of    renunciation. 
14 


208 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


People  have  abdicated  thrones  and  turned  monks  ;  but 
they've  not  been  common,  and  I  dare  say,  if  the  whole 
truth  could  be  known,  they  have  never  been  half  the 
men  they  were  before,  Or  become  just  the  saints  they 
intended  to  be.     If  you'll  take  the  most  extraordinary 
\  instance  of  modern  times,  or  of  all  times — if  you'll 
take  Tolstoi  himself,  you'll  see  how  impossible  it  is 
\  for  a  man  to  rid  himself  of  his  environment.     Tolstoi 
-  believes  unquestionably  in  a  life  of  poverty  and  toil 
and  trust ;  but  he  has  not  been  able  to  give  up  his 
money;    he    is   defended   against    want  by  the  usual 
J  gentlemanly  sources  of  income;  and  he  lives  a  ghastly 
travesty  of  his  unfulfilled  design.     He's  a  moimmental 
warning  of  the  futility  of  any  mdivi(TuaI"attempt  to 
e"s^rt^H^omconj^ions7~^TKatJs  what  I  tell  my  dear 
old  ffienoChapley,  who's  quite  Tolsto'i  mad,  and  wants 
to  go  into  the  country  and  simplify  himself." 
"  Does  he,  really  ?  "  Ray  asked,  with  a  smile. 

Why  not?  Tolsto'i  convinces  your  reason  and 
touches  your  heart.  There's  no  flaw  in  his  logic  and 
no  falsity  in  his  sentiment.  I  think  that  if  Tolstoi 
had  not  become  a  leader,  he  would  have  had  a  multi 
tude  of  followers." 

The  perfection  of  his  paradox  afforded  Kane  the 
highest  pleasure.  He  laughed  out  his  joy  in  it,  and 
clapped  Ray  on  the  shoulder,  and  provoked  him  to 
praise  it,  and  was  so  frankly  glad  of  having  made  it 
that  all  Ray's  love  of  him  came  back. 


XXVI. 

FROM  one  phase  of  his  experience  with  his  story, 
Ray  took  a  hint,  and  made  bold  to  ask  Mr.  Brandreth 
if  he  could  not  give  him  some  manuscripts  to  read  ;  he 
:  had  rather  a  fancy  for  playing  the  part  of  some  other 
!  man's  destiny  since  he  could  have  so  little  to  do  with 
\  deciding  his  own.  Chapley  &  Co.  had  not  much  work 
of  that  kind  to  give,  but  they  turned  over  a  number  of 
novels  to  him,  and  he  read  them  with  a  jealous 
interest ;  he  wished  first  of  all  to  find  whether  other 
people  were  writing  better  novels  than  his,  and  he 
hoped  to  find  that  they  were  not.  Mostly,  they  really 
were  not,  and  they  cumulatively  strengthened  him 
against  an  impulse  which  he  had  more  than  once  had 
to  burn  his  manuscript.  From  certain  of  the  novels 
he  read  he  got  instruction  both  of  a  positive  and  neg 
ative  kind  ;  for  it  was  part  of  his  business  to  look  at 
their  construction,  and  he  never  did  this  without  men 
tally  revising  the  weak  points  of  his  story,  and  consid 
ering  how  he  could  repair  them. 

There  was  not  a  great  deal  of  money  in  this  work ; 
but  Ray  got  ten  or  fifteen  dollars  for  reading  a  manu 
script  and  rendering  an  opinion  of  it,  and  kept  him- 
'  self  from  the  depravation  of  waiting  for  the  turn  of 
the  cards.     He  waited  for  nothing ;  he  worked  contin- 


210  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

ually,  and  he  filled  up  the  intervals  of  the  work  that 
was  given  to  him  with  work  that  he  made  for  himself. 
He  wrote  all  sorts  of  things,  —  essays,  stories,  sketches, 
poems,  —  and  sent  them  about  to  the  magazines  and 
the  weekly  newspapers  and  the  syndicates.  When 
the  editors  were  long  in  reporting  upon  them  he  went 
and  asked  for  a  decision  ;  and  in  audacious  moments 
he  carried  his  manuscript  to  them,  and  tried  to  sur 
prise  an  instant  judgment  from  them.  This,  if  it  were 
in  the  case  of  a  poem,  or  a  very  short  sketch,  he  could 
sometimes  get ;  and  it  was  usually  adverse,  as  it  usu 
ally  was  in  the  case  of  the  things  he  sent  them  by 
mail.  They  were  nowhere  unkindly  ;  they  were  often 
sympathetic,  and  suggested  that  what  was  not  exactly 
adapted  to  their  publications  might  be  adapted  to  the 
publication  of  a  fellow-editor ;  they  were  willing  to 
I  sacrifice  one  another  in  his  behalf.  They  did  not 
always  refuse  his  contributions.  Kane,  who  witnessed 
his  struggles  at  this  period  with  an  interest  which  he 
declared  truly  paternal,  was  much  struck  by  the  fact 
that  Ray's  failures  and  successes  exactly  corresponded 
to  those  of  business  men  ;  that  is,  he  failed  ninety-five 
times  out  of  a  hundred  to  get  his  material  printed. 
His  effort  was  not  of  the  vast  range  suggested  by  these 
numbers  ;  he  had  a  few  manuscripts  that  were  refused 
many  times  over,  and  made  up  the  large  sum  of  his 
rejections  by  the  peculiar  disfavor  that  followed  them. 
Besides*  these  regular  attacks  on  the  literary  periodi 
cals,  Ray  carried  on  guerilla  operations  of  several 
sorts.  He  sold  jokes  at  two  dollars  apiece  to  the 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  211 

comic  papers ;  it  sometimes  seemed  low  for  jokes,  but 
the  papers  paid  as  much  for  a  poor  joke  as  a  good  one, 
and  the  market  was  steady.  He  got  rather  more  for 
jokes  that  were  ordered  of  him,  as  when  an  editor 
found  himself  in  possession  of  an  extremely  amusing 
illustration  without  obvious  meaning.  He  developed 
a  facility  wholly  unexpected  to  himself  in  supplying 
the  meaning  for  a  picture  of  this  kind ;  if  it  were  a 
cartoon,  he  had  the  courage  to  ask  as  much  as  five 
dollars  for  his  point. 

A  mere  accident  opened  up  another  field  of  industry 
to  him,  when  one  day  a  gentleman  halted  him  at  the 
foot  of  the  stairway  to  an  elevated  station,  and  after 
begging  his  pardon  for  first  mistaking  him  for  a  Grand 
Army  man,  professed  himself  a  journalist  in  momen 
tary  difficulty. 

"  I  usually  sell  my  things  to  the  Sunday  Planet,  but 
my  last  poem  was  too  serious  for  their  F.  S.,  and  I'm 
down  on  my  luck.  Of  course,  I  see  now"  said  the 
journalist  in  difficulty,  "  that  you  couldn't  have  been 
in  the  war ;  at  first  glance  I  took  you  for  an  old  com 
rade  of  mine ;  but  if  you'll  leave  your  address  with 
me  —  Thank  you,  sir  !  Thank  you !  " 

Ray  had  put  a  quarter  in  his  hand,  and  he  thought 
he  had  bought  the  right  to  ask  him  a  question. 

"  I  know  that  I  may  look  twice  my  age  when  people 
happen  to  see  double  "  — 

"  Capital !  "  said  the  veteran.  "  First-rate  !  "  and  he 
clapped  Ray  on  the  shoulder,  and  then  clung  to  him 
long  enough  to  recover  his  balance. 


212  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  But  would  you  be  good  enough  to  tell  me  what  the 
F.  S.  of  the  Sunday  Planet  is  ?  " 

"  Why,  the  Funny  Side  —  the  page  where  they  put 
the  jokes  and  the  comic  poetry.  F.  S.  for  short. 
Brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit,  you  know." 

Ray  hurried  home  and  put  together  some  of  the 
verses  that  had  come  back  to  him  from  the  comic 
papers,  and  mailed  them  to  the  Sunday  Planet.  He 
had  learned  not  to  respect  his  work  the  less  for  being 
rejected,  but  the  Planet  did  riot  wane  in  his  esteem 
because  the  editor  of  the  F.  S.  accepted  all  his  outcast 
verses.  The  pay  was  deplorably  little,  however,  and 
for  the  first  time  he  was  tempted  to  consider  an  offer 
of  partnership  with  a  gentleman  who  wrote  advertise 
ments  for  a  living,  and  who,  in  the  falterings  of  his 
genius  from  overwork,  had  professed  himself  willing  to 
share  his  honors  and  profits  with  a  younger  man  ;  the 
profits,  at  any  rate,  were  enormous. 

But  this  temptation  endured  only  for  a  moment  of 
disheartenment.  In  all  his  straits  Ray  not  only  did 
his  best,  but  he  kept  true  to  a  certain  ideal  of  himself 
as  an  artist.  There  were  some  things  he  could  not  do 
even  to  make  a  living.  He  might  sell  anything  he 
wrote,  and  he  might  write  anything  within  the  bounds 
of  honesty  that  would  sell,  but  he  could  not  sell  his 
pen,  or  let  it  for  hire,  to  be  used  as  the  lessee  wished. 
It  was  not  the  loftiest  grade  of  aesthetics  or  ethics,  and 
perhaps  the  distinctions  he  made  were  largely  imagi 
nary.  But  he  refused  the  partnership  offered  him, 
though  it  came  with  a  flattering  recognition  of  his 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  213 

literary  abilities,  and  of  his  peculiar  fitness  for  the 
work  proposed. 

He  got  to  know  a  good  many  young  fellows  who 
were  struggling  forward  on  the  same  lines  with  him 
self,  and  chancing  it  high  and  low  with  the  great 
monthlies,  where  they  offered  their  poems  and  short 
stories,  and  with  the  one-cent  dailies,  where  they  turned 
in  their  space-work.  They  had  a  courage  in  their 
risks  which  he  came  to  share  in  its  gayety,  if  not  its 
irreverence,  and  he  enjoyed  the  cheerful  cynicism  with 
which  they  philosophized  the  facts  of  the  newspaper 
side  of  their  trade :  they  had  studied  its  average  of 
successes  and  failures,  and  each  of  them  had  his  secret 
for  surprising  the  favor  of  the  managing  editor.,  as  in 
fallible  as  the  gambler's  plan  for  breaking  the  bank  at 
Monaco. 

"You  don't  want  to  be  serious,"  one  blithe  spirit 
volunteered  for  Ray's  instruction  in  a  moment  of 
defeat ;  "  you  want  to  give  a  light  and  cheerful  cast  to 
things.  For  instance,  if  a  fireman  loses  his  life  in  a 
burning  building,  you  mustn't  go  straight  for  the  read 
er's  pity  ;  you  must  appeal  to  his  sense  of  the  pictur 
esque.  You  must  call  it,  '  Knocked  out  in  a  Fight 
with  Fire,'  or  something  like  that,  and  treat  the  inci 
dent  with  mingled  pathos  and  humor.  If  you've  got 
a  case  of  suicide  by  drowning,  all  you've  got  to  do  is 
to  call  it  '  Launch  of  one  more  Unfortunate,'  and  the 
editor  is  yours.  Go  round  and  make  studies  of  our 
metropolitan  civilization ;  write  up  the  *  Leisure  Mo 
ments  of  Surface-Car  Conductors,'  or  *  Talks  with  the 


214  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Ticket-Choppers.'  Do  the  amateur  scavenger,  and 
describe  the  '  Mysteries  of  the  Average  Ash-Barrel.' " 

As  the  time  wore  on,  the  circle  of  Ray's  acquaint 
ance  widened  so  much  that  he  no  longer  felt  those 
pangs  of  homesickness  which  used  to  seize  him  when 
ever  he  got  letters  from  Midland.  He  rather  neglected 
his  correspondence  with  Sanderson ;  the  news  of  par 
ties  and  sleigh-rides  and  engagements  and  marriages 
which  his  friend  wrote,  affected  him  like  echoes  from 
some  former  life.  He  was  beginning  to  experience  the 
fascination  of  the  mere  city,  where  once  he  had  a 
glimpse  of  the  situation  fleeting  and  impalpable  as 
those  dream-thoughts  that  haunt  the  consciousness  on 
the  brink  of  sleep.  Then  it  was  as  if  all  were  driving 
on  together,  ho  one  knew  why  or  whither ;  but  some 
had  embarked  on  the  weird  voyage  to  waste,  and  some 
to  amass ;  their  encounter  formed  the  opportunity  of 
both,  and  a  sort  of  bewildered  kindliness  existed  be 
tween  them.  Their  common  ignorance  of  what  it  was 
all  for  was  like  a  bond,  and  they  clung  involuntarily 
together  in  their  unwieldy  multitude  because  of  the 
want  of  meaning,  and  prospered  on,  suffered  on, 
through  vast  cyclones  of  excitement  that  whirled  them 
round  and  round,  and  made  a  kind  of  pleasant  drunk 
enness  in  their  brains,  and  consoled  them  for  never 
resting  and  never  arriving. 

The  fantastic  vision  passed,  and  Ray  again  saw  him 
self  and  those  around  him  full  of  distinctly  intended 
effort,  each  in  his  sort,  and  of  relentless  energy,  which 
were  self-sufficing;  and  self-satisfying.  Most  of  the 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  215 

people  he  knew  were,  like  himself,  bent  upon  getting  a 
story,  or  a  poem,  or  an  essay,  or  an  article,  printed  in 
some  magazine  or  newspaper,  or  some  book  into  the 
hands  of  a  publisher.  They  were  all,  like  himself, 
making  their  ninety-five  failures  out  of  a  hundred  en 
deavors ;  but  they  were  all  courageous,  if  they  were 
not  all  gay,  and  if  they  thought  the  proportion  of 
their  failures  disastrous,  they  said  nothing  to  show  it. 
They  did  not  try  to  blink  them,  but  they  preferred  to 
fcelebrate  their  successes ;  perhaps  the  rarity  of  these 
merited  it  more. 


XXVII. 

As  soon  as  Ray  had  pulled  himself  out  of  his 
slough  of  despond,  and  began  to  struggle  forward  on 
such  footing  as  he  found  firm,  he  felt  the  rise  of  the 
social  instinct  in  him.  lie  went  about  and  delivered 
his  letters ;  he  appeared  at  one  of  Mrs.  Chapley's 
Thursdays,  and  began  to  be  passed  from  one  afternoon 
tea  to  another.  He  met  the  Mayquaits  at  Mrs.  Chap- 
ley's,  those  Gitchigumee  people  she  had  asked  him 
about,  and  at  their  house  he  met  a  lady  so  securely  his 
senior  that  she  could  let  him  see  at  once  she  had  taken 
a-  great  fancy  to  him.  The  Mayquaits  have  since 
bought  a  right  of  way  into  the  heart  of  society,  but 
they  were  then  in  the  peripheral  circles,  and  this  lady 
seemed  anxious  to  be  accounted  for  in  that  strange 
company  of  rich  outcasts.  Something  in  Hay's  intel 
ligent  young  good  looks  must  have  appealed  to  her  as 
a  possible  solvent.  As  soon  as  he  was  presented  to 
her  she  began  to  ply  him  with  subtle  questions  concern 
ing  their  hostess  and  their  fellow-guests,  with  whom 
she  professed  to  find  herself  by  a  species  of  accident 
springing  from  their  common  interest  in  a  certain 
charity :  that  particular  tea  was  to  promote  it.  Per 
haps  it  was  the  steadfast  good  faith  of  the  pretty  boy 
in  refusing  to  share  in  her  light  satire,  while  he  could 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  217 

not  help  showing  that  he  enjoyed  it,  which  commended 
Ray  more  and  more  to  her.  He  told  her  how  he  came 
to  be  there,  not  because  she  asked,  for  she  did  not  ask, 
but  because  he  perceived  that  she  wished  to  know,  and 
because  it  is  always  pleasant  to  speak  about  one's  self 
upon  any  pretext,  and  he  evinced  a  delicate  sympathy 
with  her  misgiving.  It  flattered  him  that  she  should 
single  him  out  for  her  appeal  as  if  he  were  of  her  sort, 
and  he  eagerly  accepted  an  invitation  she  made  him. 
Through  her  favor  and  patronage  he  began  to  go  to 
lunches  and  dinners ;  he  went  to  balls,  and  danced 
sometimes  when  his  pockets  were  so  empty  that  he 
walked  one  way  to  save  his  car  fares.  But  his  pov 
erty  was  without  care ;  it  did  not  eat  into  his  heart, 
for  no  one  else  shared  it ;  and  those  spectres  of  want 
and  shame  which  haunt  the  city's  night,  and  will  not 
always  away  at  dawn,  but  remain  present  to  eyes  that 
have  watched  and  wept,  vanished  in  the  joyous  light 
that  his  youth  shed  about  him,  as  he  hurried  home 
with  the  waltz  music  beating  in  his  blood.  A  remote 
sense,  very  remote  and  dim,  of  something  all  wrong 
attended  him  at  moments  in  his  pleasure  ;  at  moments 
it  seemed  even  he  who  was  wrong.  But  this  fled 
before  his  analysis ;  he  could  not  see  what  harm  he 

doing.     To  pass    his  leisure  in  the  company  of  >  <^Y     tf  \V 


* 


well-bred,     well-dressed,     prosperous,     and    handsome    •  t     v 
people  was  so  obviously  right  and   fit  that  it  seemed          $     $ 
absurd  to  suffer  any  question  of  it.     lie  met  mainly 
•very  refined  persons,  whose  interests  were  all  elevated, 
and   whose    tastes    were   often   altruistic.     He   found 


218  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

(  himself  in  a  set  of  young  people,  who  loved  art  and 
/  literature  and  music,  and  he  talked  to  his  heart's  con- 
S  tent  with  agreeable  girls  about  pictures  and  books  and 
theatres. 

It  surprised  him  that  with  all  this  opportunity  and 
contiguity  he  did  not  fall  in  love ;  after  the  freest 
give  and  take  of  aesthetic  sympathies  he  came  away 
with  a  kindled  fancy  and  a  cold  heart.  There  was 
one  girl  he  thought  would  have  let  him  be  in  love  with 
her  if  he  wished,  but  when  he  questioned  his  soul  he 
found  that  he  did  not  wish,  or  could  not.  He  said  to 
himself  that  it  was  her  money,  for  she  was  rich  as 
well  as  beautiful  and  wise ;  and  he  feigned  that  if  it 
had  not  been  for  her  money  he  might  have  been  in 
love  with  her.  Her  people,  an  aunt  and  uncle,  whom 
she  lived  with,  made  much  of  him,  and  the  way  seemed 
clear.  They  began  to  tell  each  other  about  themselves, 
and  once  he  interested  her  very  much  by  the  story  of 
his  adventures  in  first  coming  to  New  York. 

"And  did  you  never  meet  the  two  young  women 
afterwards  ?  "  she  asked. 

"Yes.  That  was  the  curious  part  of  it,"  he  said, 
and  piqued  that  she  called  them  "  two  young  women," 
he  went  on  to  tell  her  of  the  Hugheses,  whom  he. set 
forth  in  all  the  picturesqueness  he  could  command. 
She  listened  intensely,  and  even  provoked  him  with 
some  questions  to  go  on  ;  but  at  the  end  she  said 
nothing ;  and  after  that  she  was  the  same  and  not  the 
same  to  him.  At  first  he  thought  it  might  be  her 
objection  to  his  knowing  such  queer  people ;  she  was 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  219 

very  proud;  but  he  was  still  made  much  of  by  her 
family,  and  there  was  nothing  but  this  difference  in 
her  that  marked  with  its  delicate  distinctness  the  loss 
of  a  chance. 

He  was  not  touched  except  in  his  vanity.  Without 
the  subtle  willingness  which  she  had  subtly  withdrawn, 
his  life  was  still  surpassingly  rich  on  the  side  where  it 
had  been  hopelessly  poor  ;  and  in  spite  of  his  personal 
poverty  he  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  social  affluence 
beyond  the  magic  of  mere  money.  Sometimes  he 
regarded  it  all  as  his  due,  and  at  all  times  he  took  it 
with  simple  ingratitude  ;  but  he  had  moments  of  pas 
sionate  humility  when  he  realized  that  he  owed  his 
good  fortune  to  the  caprice  of  a  worldly  old  woman, 
whom  he  did  not  respect  very  much. 

When  he  began  to  go  into  society,  he  did  not  forget 
his  earlier  friends  ;  he  rather  prided  himself  on  his 
constancy  ;  he  thought  it  was  uncommon,  and  he  found  ; 

it  a  consolation  when  other  things  failed  him.     Tf  wa^  f          <y 
even  an  amusement  full  of  literary  suggestion  for  him  )     \\V    X 

of  what  the  world  was  to"  \  ^    v- 


Hugbes's  dream  of  what  the  world  should  be  ;  and  it   \ 
nattered  him  that  the  old  man  should  have  taken  the  / 
sort  of  fancy  to  him  that  he  had.     Hughes  consulted  ' 
him  as  a  person  with  a  different  outlook  on  life,  and 
valued  him  as  a  practical    mind,  akin  to  his  own  in 
quality,  if  not  in  direction.     First  and  last,  he  read 
him  his  whole  book  ;  he  stormily  disputed  with  him 
about    the  passages  which   Ray  criticised  as  to  their 
basal  facts  ;  but   he  adopted  some  changes  Ray  sug 
gested. 


220  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

The  young  fellow  was  a  whole  gay  world  to  Mrs. 
Den  ton,  in  his  reproduction  of  his  society  career  for 
her.  She  pursued  him  to  the  smallest  details  of  dress 
and  table  and  manner ;  he  lived  his  society  events  over 
again  for  her  with  greater  consciousness  than  he  had 
known  in  their  actual  experience ;  and  he  suffered 
patiently  the  little  splenetic  resentment  in  which  her 
satiety  was  apt  finally  to  express  itself.  He  decided 
that  he  must  not  take  Mrs.  Denton  in  any  wise  seri 
ously  ;  and  he  could  see  that  Peace  was  grateful  to 
him  for  his  complaisance  and  forbearance.  She  used 
to  listen,  too,  when  he  described  the  dinners  and  dances 
for  her  sister,  and  their  interest  gave  the  material 
a  fascination  for  Ray  himself :  it  emphasized  the  curi 
ous  duality  of  his  life,  and  lent  the  glamor  of  unreal 
ity  to  the  regions  where  they  could  no  more  have 
hoped  to  follow  him  than  to  tread  the  realms  of  air. 
Sometimes  their  father  hung  about  him  —  getting 
points  for  his  morals,  as  Ray  once  accused  him  of  do 
ing. 

,  "  No,  no  !  "  Hughes  protested.  "  I  am  interested  to 
find  how  much  better  than  their  conditions  men  and 
women  always  are.  The  competitive  conditions  of 
our  economic  life  characterize  society  as  well  as  busi- 

i  ness.  Yet  business  men  and  society  women  are  all 
better  and  kinder  than  you  would  believe  they  could 
be.  The  system  implies  that  the  weak  must  always 
go  to  the  wall,  but  in  actual  operation  it  isn't  so." 

"  From  Mr.  Ray's  account  there  seem  to  be  a  good 
many  wall-flowers,"  Mrs.  Denton  suggested. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  221 


t/Sf     Hughes  ignored  her  frivolity.     "  Itjhows  what  glo-          4( 
£*    (  rious  beings  men  and  women  would  be  if  ~lfi£y  were  ''  v^ 


/j}**  Brightly  conditioned.  There  is  a  whole  heaven  of 
[mercy  and  loving-kindness  in  human  nature  waiting  to 
\open  itself :  we  know  a  little  of  what  it  may  be  when 
a  man  or  woman  rises  superior  to  circumstance  and 
risks  a  generous  word  or  deed  in  a  selfish  world.  Then 
for  a  moment  we  have  a  glimpse  of  the  true  life  of  the 
race." 

"  Well,  I  wish  I  had  a  glimpse  of  the  untrue  life  of 
the  race,  myself,"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  as  her  father 
turned  away.  "  I  would  give  a  whole  year  of  the  mil 
lennium  for  a  week  in  society." 

"  You  don't  know  what  you're  talking  about,"  said 
her  husband.  He  had  been  listening  in  gloomy  silence 
to  Ray's  talk,  and  he  now  turned  on  his  wife.  "I 
would  rather  see  you  dead  than  in  such  *  good  society ' 
as  that." 

"  Oh,  well,"  she  answered,  "  you're  much  likelier  to 
see  me  dead.  If  I  understand  Mr.  Ray,  it's  a  great 
deal  easier  to  get  into  heaven  than  to  get  into  good 
society."  She  went  up  to  her  husband  and  pushed  his 
hair  back  from  his  eyes.  "  If  you  wore  it  that  way, 
people  could  see  what  a  nice  forehead  you've  got.  You 
look  twice  as  '  brainy.'  now,  Ansel." 

He  caught  her  hand  and  flung  it  furiously  away. 
"  Ansel,"  she  said,  "  is  beginning  to  feel  the  wear  and 
tear  of  the  job  of  setting  the  world  right  as  much  as^I 
d&.  He  never  had  as  much  faith  in  the  millennium  as 
father  has  ;  he  thinks  there's  got  to  be  some  sort  of 


222  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

sacrifice  first ;  he  hasn't  made  up  his  mind  quite  what 
it's  to  be,  yet." 

Denton  left  them  abruptly,  and  after  a  while  Ray 
heard  him  talking  in  the  next  room  ;  he  thought  Le 
must  be  talking  to  some  one  there,  till  his  wife  said, 
"  Ansel  doesn't  say  much  in  company,  but  he's  pretty 
sociable  when  he  gets  by  himself." 


XXVIII. 

THE  next  time  Ray  came,  he  found  Denton  dreamily 
picking  at  the  strings  of  a  violin  which  lay  in  his  lap ; 
the  twins  were  clinging  to  his  knees,  and  moving 
themselves  in  time  to  the  music. 

"  You  didn't  know  Ansel  was  a  musician  ?  "  his  wife 
said.  "  He's  just  got  a  new  violin  —  or  rather  it's  a 
second-hand  one ;  but  it's  splendid,  and  he  got  it  so 
cheap." 

"I  profited  by  another  man's  misfortune,"  said 
Denton.  "  That's  the  way  we  get  things  cheap." 

"  Oh,  well,  never  mind  about  that,  now.  Play  the 
'  Darky's  Dream,'  won't  you,  Ansel  ?  I  wish  we  had 
our  old  ferry-boat  darky  here  to  whistle !  " 

After  a  moment  in  which  he  seemed  not  to  have 
noticed  her,  he  put  the  violin  to  his  chin,  and  began 
the  wild,  tender  strain  of  the  piece.  It  seemed  to 
make  the  little  ones  drunk  with  delight.  They  swayed 
themselves  to  and  fro,  holding  by  their  father's  knees, 
and  he  looked  down  softly  into  their  uplifted  faces. 
When  he  stopped  playing,  their  mother  put  out  her 
hand  toward  one  of  them,  but  it  clung  the  faster  to  its 
father. 

"  Let  me   take  your  violin  a  moment,"  said    Ray. 

He  knew  the  banjo  a  little,  and  now  he  picked  out  on 
lo 


224  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

the  violin  an  air  which  one  of  the  girls  in  Midland  had 
taught  him. 

The  twins  watched  him  with  impatient  rejection ; 
and  they  were  not  easy  till  their  father  had  the  violin 
back.  Denton  took  them  up  one  on  each  knee,  and 
let  them  claw  at  it  between  them ;  they  looked  into 
his  face  for  the  effect  on  him  as  they  lifted  themselves 
and  beat  the  strings.  After  a  while  Peace  rose  and 
tried  to  take  it  from  them,  for  their  father  seemed  to 
have  forgotten  what  they  were  doing ;  but  they  stormed 
at  her,  in  their  baby  way,  by  the  impulse  that  seemed 
common  to  them,  and  screamed  out  their  shrill  protest 
against  her  interference. 

"  Let  them  alone,"  said  their  father,  gently,  and  she 
desisted. 

"  You'll  spoil  those  children,  Ansel,"  said  his  wife, 
"  letting  them  have  their  own  way  so.  The  first  thing 
you  know,  they'll  grow  up  capitalists." 

He  had  been  looking  down  at  them  with  dreamy 
melancholy,  but  he  began  to  laugh  helplessly,  and  he 
kept  on  till  she  said  : 

"  I  think  it's  getting  to  be  rather  out  of  proportion 
to  the  joke ;  don't  you,  Mr.  Ray  ?  Not  that  Ansel 
laughs  too  much,  as  a  rule." 

Denton  rose,  when  the  children  let  the  violin  slip  to 
the  floor  at  last,  and  improvised  the  figure  of  a  dance 
with  them  on  his  shoulders,  and  let  himself  go  in  fan 
tastic  capers,  while  he  kept  a  visage  of  perfect  serious 
ness. 

Hughes  was  drawn  by  the  noise,  and  put  his  head 
into  the  room. 


THE    WORLD    OP    CHANCE.  225 

"  "We've  got  the  old  original  Ansel  back,  father !  " 
cried  Mrs.  Denton,  and  she  clapped  her  hands  and  tried 
to  sing  to  the  dance,  but  broke  down,  and  mocked  at  her 
own  failure. 

When  Denton  stopped  breathless,  Peace  took  the 
children  from  him,  and  carried  them  away.  His  wife 
remained. 

"  Ansel  was  brought  up  among  the  Shakers  ;  that's 
the  reason  he  dances  so  nicely." 

"  Oh,  was  that  a  Shaker  dance  ?  "  Ray  asked,  care 
lessly. 

"No.  The  Shaker  dance  is  a  rite,"  said  Denton, 
angrily.  "  You  might  as  well  expect  me  to  burlesque 
a  prayer." 

"  Oh,  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Ray.  "  I'm  afraid 
I  don't  know  much  about  it." 

But  Denton  left  the  room  without  visible  acceptance 
of  his  excuse. 

"  You  must  be  careful  how  you  say  anything  about 
the  Shakers  before  Ansel,"  his  wife  explained.  "I 
believe  he  would  be  willing  to  go  back  to  them  now, 
if  he  knew  what  to  do  with  the  children  and  me." 

"  If  it  were  not  for  their  unpractical  doctrine  of 
celibacy,"  said  Hughes,  "  the  Shakers,  as  a  religious 
sect,  could  perform  a  most  useful  office  in  the  transi 
tion  from  the  status  to  better  conditions.  They  are 
unselfish,  and  most  communities  are  not." 

"We  might  all  go  back  with  Ansel,"  said  Mrs. 
Denton,  "  and  they  could  distribute  us  round  in  the 
different  Families.  I  wonder  if  Ansel's  bull  is  hang- 


226  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

ing  up  in  the  South  Family  barn  yet  ?  You  know," 
she  said,  "  he  painted  a  red  bull  on  a  piece  of  shingle 
when  they  were  painting  the  barn  one  day,  and  nailed 
it  up  in  a  stall ;  when  the  elders  found  it  they  labored 
with  him,  and  then  Ansel  left  the  community,  and 
went  out  into  the  world.  But  they  say,  once  a  Shaker 
always  a  Shaker,  and  I  believe  he's  had  a  bad  con 
science  ever  since  he's  left  them." 

Not  long  after  this  Ray  canie  in  one  night  dressed 
for  a  little  dance  that  he  was  going  to  later,  and  Mrs. 
Denton  had  some  moments  alone  with  him  before 
Peace  joined  them.  She  made  him  tell  where  he  was 
going,  and  who  the  people  were  that  were  giving  the 
dance,  and  what  it  would  all  be  like  —  the  rooms  and 
decorations,  the  dresses,  the  supper. 

"  And  don't  you  feel  very  strange  and  lost,  in  such 
places  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Ray.  "  I  can't  always  remem 
ber  that  I'm  a  poor  Bohemian  with  two  cents  in  my 
pocket.  Sometimes  I  imagine  myself  really  rich  and 
fashionable.  But  to-night  I  shan't,  thank  you,  Mrs. 
Denton." 

She  laughed  at  the  look  he  gave  her  in  acknowledg 
ment  of  her  little  scratch.  "  Then  you  wouldn't 
refuse  to  come  to  a  little  dance  here,  if  we  were  rich 
enough  to  give  one  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  would  come  instantly." 

"  And  get  your  fashionable  friends  to  come  ?  " 

"  That  might  take  more  time.  When  are  you  going 
to  give  your  little  dance  ?  " 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  227 

"  As  soon  as  Ansel's  invention  is  finished." 

"  Oh  !     Is  he  going  on  with  that  ?  " 

"  Yes.  He  has  seen  how  he  can  do  more  good  than 
harm  with  it  —  at  last." 

"  Ah !  We  can  nearly  always  coax  conscience 
along  the  path  of  self-interest." 

This  pleased  Mrs.  Denton  too.  "  That  sounds  like 
Mr.  Kane." 

Peace  came  in  while  Mrs.  Denton  was  speaking, 
and  gave  Ray  her  hand,  with  a  glance  at  his  splendor, 
enhanced  by  his  stylish  manner  of  holding  his  silk  hat 
against  his  thigh. 

"  Who  was  it  told  you  that  Mr.  Kane  was  sick  ?  " 
Mrs.  Denton  asked. 

Peace  answered,  "  Mr.  Chapley." 

"  Kane  ?  Is  Mr.  Kane  sick  ?  "  said  Ray.  "  I  must 
go  and  see  him." 

He  asked  Peace  some  questions  about  Kane,  but 
she  knew  nothing  more  than  that  Mr.  Chapley  said  he 
was  not  very  well,  and  he  was  going  to  step  round  and 
see  him  on  his  way  home.  Ray  thought  of  the  grudge 
he  had  borne  for  a  while  against  Kane,  and  he  was 
very  glad  now  that  there  was  none  left  in  his  heart. 

"  It's  too  late  to-night ;  but  I'll  go  in  the  morning. 
He  usually  drops  in  on  me  Sundays  ;  he  didn't  come 
last  Sunday ;  but  I  never  thought  of  his  being  sick." 
He  went  on  to  praise  Kane,  and  he  said,  as  if  it  were 
one  of  Kane's  merits,  "He's  been  a  good  friend  of 
mine.  He  read  my  novel  all  over  after  Chapley  de 
clined  it,  and  tried  to  find  enough  good  in  it  to  justify 


228  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

him  in  recommending  it  to  some  other  publisher.  I 
don't  blame  him  for  failing,  but  I  did  feel  hard  about 
his  refusing  to  look  at  it  afterwards  ;  I  couldn't  help 
it  for  a  while."  He  was  speaking  to  Peace,  and  he 
said,  as  if  it  were  something  she  would  be  cognizant 
of,  "I  mean  when  Mr.  Brandreth  sent  for  it  again 
after  he  first  rejected  it." 

"Yes,"  she  admitted,  briefly,  and  he  was  subtly 
aware  of  the  withdrawal  which  he  noticed  in  her 
whenever  the  interest  of  the  moment  became  personal. 

But  there  was  never  any  shrinking  from  the  per 
sonal  interest  in  Mrs.  Denton  ;  her  eagerness  to  ex 
plore  all  his  experiences  and  sentiments  was  vivid  and 
untiring. 

"  Why  did  he  send  for  it  ?  "  she  asked.  "  What  in 
the  world  for  ?  " 

Hay  was  willing  to  tell,  for  he  thought  the  whole 
affair  rather  creditable  to  himself.  "He  wanted  to 
submit  it  to  a  friend  of  mine  ;  and  if  my  friend's  judg 
ment  was  favorable  he  might  want  to  reconsider  his 
decision.  He  returned  the  manuscript  the  same  day, 
with  a  queer  note  which  left  me  to  infer  that  my  mys 
terious  friend  had  already  seen  it,  and  had  seen  enough 
of  it.  I  knew  it  was  Mr.  Kane,  and  for  a  while  I 
wanted  to  destroy  him.  But  I  forgave  him,  when  I 
thought  it  all  over." 

"  It  was  pretty  mean  of  him,"  said  Mrs.  Denton. 

"  No,  no  !  He  had  a  perfect  right  to  do  it,  and  I 
had  no  right  to  complain.  But  it  took  me  a  little 
time  to  own  it." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  229 

Mrs.  Denton  turned  to  Peace.  "Did  you  know 
about  it?" 

Denton  burst  suddenly  into  the  room,  and  stared 
distractedly  about  as  if  lie  were  searching  for  some 
thing. 

"  What  is  it,  Ansel  ?  "  Peace  asked. 

"  That  zinc  plate." 

"  It's  on  the  bureau,"  said  his  wife. 

He  was  rushing  out,  when  she  recalled  him. 

"  Here's  Mr.  Ray." 

He  turned,  and  glanced  at  Ray  impatiently,  as  if  he 
were  eager  to  get  back  to  his  work ;  but  the  gloomy 
face  which  he  usually  wore  was  gone ;  his  eyes  ex 
pressed  only  an  intense  preoccupation  through  which 
gleamed  a  sudden  gayety,  as  if  it  flashed  into  them 
from  some  happier  time  in  the  past.  "Oh,  yes,"  he 
said  to  his  wife,  while  he  took  hold  of  Ray's  arm  and 
turned  him  about ;  '^this  is  the  way  you  want  me  to 
look." 

"  As  soon  as  your  process  succeeds,  I  expect  you  to 
look  that  way  all  the  time.  And  I'm  going  to  go 
round  and  do  my  work  in  a  low-neck  dress  ;  and  we 
are  going  to  have  champagne  at  every  meal.  I  am 
going  to  have  a  day,  on  my  card,  and  I  am  going  to 
have  afternoon  teas  and  give  dinners.  We  are  going 
into  the  best  society." 

Denton  slid  his  hand  down  Ray's  arm,  and  kept 
Ray's  hand  in  his  hot  clasp  while  he  rapidly  asked 
him  about  the  side  of  his  life  which  that  costume  repre 
sented,  as  though  now  for  the  first  time  he  had  a 


230  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

reason  for  caring  to  know  anything  of  the  world  and 
its  pleasures. 

"  And   those  people  don't   do  anything  else  ?  "  he 
sked,  finally. 

"  Isn't  it  enough  ?  "  Ray  retorted.  "  They  think 
they  do  a  great  deal." 

•  Denton  laughed  in  a  strange  nervous  note,  catching 
Ais  breath,  and  keeping  on  involuntarily.  "  Yes  ;  too 
\much.  I  pity  them." 

"  Well,"  said  his  wife,  "  I  want  to  be  an  object  of 
pity  as  soon  as  possible.  Don't  lose  any  more  time, 
now,  Ansel,  from  that  precious  process."  The  light 
went  out  of  his  face  again,  and  he  jerked  his  head 
erect  sharply,  like  one  listening,  while  he  stood  staring 
at  her.  "  Oh,  now,  don't  be  ridiculous,  Ansel !  "  she 
said. 


XXIX. 

THE  next  day  after  a  little  dance  does  not  dawn 
very  early.  Ray  woke  late,  with  a  vague  trouble  in 
his  mind,  which  he  thought  at  first  was  the  sum  of  the 
usual  regrets  for  awkward  things  done  and  foolish 
things  said  the  night  before.  Presently  it  shaped  it 
self  as  an  anxiety  which  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
little  dance,  and  which  he  was  helpless  to  deal  with 
when  he  recognized  it.  Still,  as  a  definite  anxiety,  it 
was  more  than  half  a  question,  and  his  experience  did 
not  afford  him  the  means  of  measuring  its  importance 
or  ascertaining  its  gravity.  He  carried  it  loosely  in 
his  mind  when  he  went  to  see  Kane,  as  something  he 
might  or  might  not  think  of. 

Kane  was  in  bed,  convalescent  from  a  sharp  gastric 
attack,  and  he  reached  Ray  a  soft  moist  hand  across 
the  counterpane  and  cheerily  welcomed  him.  His 
coat  and  hat  hung  against  a  closet  door,  and  looked  so 
like  him  that  they  seemed  as  much  part  of  him  as  his 
hair  and  beard,  which  were  smoothly  brushed,  and 
gave  their  silver  delicately  against  the  pillow.  A  fire 
of  soft  coal  purred  in  the  grate,%  faded  to  a  fainter 
flicker  by  the  sunlight  that  poured  in  at  the  long  south 
windows,  and  lit  up  the  walls  book-lined  from  floor  to 
ceiling. 


232  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  in  acceptance  of  the  praises  of  its 
comfort  that  Ray  burst  out  with,  "  I  have  lived  in  this 
room  so  long  that  I  begin  to  cherish  the  expectation  of 
dying  in  it.  But,  really,  is  this  the  first  time  you've 
been  here  ?  " 

"The  first,"  said  Ray.  "I  had  to  wait  till  you 
were  helpless  before  I  got  in." 

"  Ah,  no  ;  ah,  no  !  Not  so  bad  as  that.  I've  often 
meant  to  ask  you,  when  there  was  some  occasion ;  but 
there  never  seemed  any  occasion  ;  and  I've  lived  here 
so  much  alone  that  I'm  rather  selfish  about  my  solitude ; 
I  like  to  keep  it  to  myself.  But  I'm  very  glad  to  see 
you  ;  it  was  kind  of  you  to  think  of  coming."  He  bent 
a  look  of  affection  on  the  young  fellow's  handsome 
face.  "  "Well,  how  wags  the  gay  world  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Does  the  gay  world  do  anything  so  light-minded 
as  to  wag  ?  "  Ray  asked  in  his  turn,  with  an  intel 
lectual  coxcombry  that  he  had  found  was  not  offensive 
to  Kane.  "  It  always  seems  to  me  very  serious  as  a 
whole,  the  gay  world,  though  it  has  its  reliefs,  when  it 
tries  to  enjoy  itself."  He  leaned  back  in  his  chair, 
and  handled  his  stick  a  moment,  and  then  he  told 
Kane  about  the  little  dance  which  he  had  been  at  the 
night  before.  He  sketched  some  of  the  people  arid 
made  it  amusing. 

"  And  which  of  your  butterfly  friends  told  you  I  was 
ill  ?  "  asked  Kane. 

"  The  butterflyest'of  all :  Mrs.  Denton." 

"  Oh  !     Did  she  give  the  little  dance  ?  " 

"  No.     I  dropped  in  at  the  Hugheses'  on  the  way  to 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  233 

the  dance.  But  I  don't  know  how  soon  she  may  be 
doing  something  of  the  kind.  They're  on  the  verge  of 
immense  prosperity.  Her  husband  has  invented  a  new 
art  process,  and  it's  going  to  make  them  rich.  He 
doesn't  seem  very  happy  about  it,  but  she  does.  He's 
a  dreary  creature.  At  first  I  used  to  judge  her  rather 
severely,  as  we  do  with  frivolous  people.  But  I  don't 
know  that  frivolity  is  so  bad ;  I  doubt  if  it's  as  bad  as 
austerity ;  they're  both  merely  the  effect  of  tempera 
ment,  it  strikes  me.  I  like  Mrs.  Denton,  though  she 
does  appear  to  care  more  for  the  cat  than  the  twins. 
Perhaps  she  thinks  she  can  safely  leave  them  to  him. 
He's  very  devoted  to  them ;  it's  quite  touching.  It's 
another  quality  of  paternal  devotion  from  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth's  ;  it  isn't  half  so  voluble.  But  it's  funny,  all  the 
same,  to  see  how  much  more  care  of  them  he  takes 
than  their  mother  does.  He  looks  after  them  at  table, 
and  he  carries  them  off  and  puts  them  to  bed  with  his 
own  hands  apparently,"  said  Ray,  in  celibate  con 
tempt  of  the  paternal  tenderness. 

"I  believe  that  in  David's  community,"  Kane  sug 
gested,  "  the  male  assisted  the  female  in  the  care  of 
their  offspring.  We  still  see  the  like  in  some  of  the 
feathered  tribes.  In  the  process  of  social  evolution 
the  father  bird  will  probably  leave  the  baby  bird  en 
tirely  to  the  mother  bird;  and  the  mother  bird,  as 
soon  as  she  begins  to  have  mind  and  money,  will  hire 
in  some  poor  bird  to  look  after  them.  Mrs.  Denton 
seems  to  have  evolved  in  the  direction  of  leaving  them 
entirely  to  the  father  bird." 


234  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Well,  she  has  to  do  most  of  the  talking.  Have 
you  ever  heard,"  Bay  asked  from  the  necessary  associ 
ation  of  ideas,  "  about  her  husband's  Voice  ?  " 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Why,  it  seems  that  Mr.  Denton  has  an  inward 
monitor  of  some  kind,  like  the  demon  of  Socrates,  that 
they  call  a  Voice,  and  that  directs  his  course  in  life, 
as  I  understand.  I  suppose  it's  authorized  him  to  go 
on  with  his  process,  which  he  was  doubtful  about  for  a 
good  while,  because  if  it  succeeded  it  would  throw  a 
lot  of  people  out  of  work.  Then  you've  never  heard 
of  his  Voice?  " 

"No,"  said  Kane.     He  added:  " I  suppose  it's  part 

E"  the  psychical  nonsense  that  they  go  into  in  all  sorts 
communities.  And  Hughes,"  he  asked  after  a 
oment  —  "  how  is  Hughes  now  ?  " 

"  He's  generally  busy  with  his  writing,  and  I  don't 
always  see  him.  He's  a  fine  old  fellow,  if  he  does 
prefer  to  call  me  out  of  my  name;  he  still  addresses 
me  generally  as  Young  Man.  Mrs.  Denton  has  tried 
to  teach  him  better ;  but  he  says  that  names  are  the 
most  external  of  all  things,  and  that  I  am  no  more 
essentially  Ray  than  I  am  Hughes.  There's  something 
in  it ;  I  think  one  might  get  a  kind  of  story  out  of 
the  notion." 

Kane  lay  silent  in  a  pensive  muse,  which  he  broke 
to  ask  with  a  smile  :  "  And  how  is  Peace  these  days  ? 
Do  you  see  her  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  she's  very  well,  I  believe,"  said  Ray,  briefly, 
and  he  rose. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  235 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Kane,  "  must  you  go  ?  " 

He  kept  Ray's  hand  affectionately,  and  seemed 
loath  to  part  with  him.  "  I'm  glad  you  don't  forget 
'Ithe  Hugheses  in  the  good  time  you're  having.  It 
jshows  character  in  you  not  to  mind  their  queeruess ; 
/I'm  sure  you  won't  regret  it.  Your  visits  are  a  great 
comfort  to  them,  I  know.  I  was  afraid  that  you 
would  not  get  over  the  disagreeable  impression,  of  that 
first  Sunday,  and  I've  never  been  sure  that  you'd 
quite  forgiven  me  for  taking  you." 

"  Oh  yes,  I  had,"  said  Ray,  and  he  smiled  with  the 
pleasure  we  all  feel  when  we  have  a  benefaction  at 
tributed  to  us.  "  I've  forgiven  you  much  worse 
things  than  that !  " 

"  Indeed !     You  console  me  !     But  for  example  ?  " 

"  Refusing  to  look  at  my  novel  a  second  time," 
answered  Ray,  by  a  sudden  impulse. 

"  I  don't  understand  you,"  said  Kane,  letting  his 
hand  go. 

u  When  Mr.  Brandreth  offered  to  submit  it  to  you 
in  the  forlorn  hope  that  you  might  like  it  and  com 
mend  it." 

"  Brandreth  never  asked  me  to  look  at  it  at  all ; 
the  only  time  I  saw  it  was  when  you  let  me  take  it 
home  with  me.  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Brandreth  wrote  me  saying  he  wanted  to  try 
it  on  a  friend  of  mine,  and  it  came  back  the  same  day 
with  word  that  my  friend  had  already  seen  it,"  said 
Ray,  in  an  astonishment  which  Kane  openly  shared. 

"And  was  that  the  reason  you  were  so  cold  with 


236  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

me  for  a  time ?  Well,  I  don't  wonder!  You  had  a 
right  to  expect  that  I  would  say  anything  in  your 
behalf  under  the  circumstances.  And  I'm  afraid  I 
should.  But  I  never  was  tempted.  Perhaps  Bran- 
dreth  got  frightened  and  returned  the  manuscript  with 
that  message  because  he  knew  he  couldn't  trust  me." 

"  Perhaps,"  said  Ray,  blankly. 

"Who  else  could  it  have  been?  Have  you  any 
surmise  ?  " 

"What  is  the  use  of  surmising?"  Ray  retorted. 
"It's  all  over.  The  story  is  dead,  and  I  wish  it  was 
buried.  Don't  bother  about  it!  And  try  to  forgive 
me  for  suspecting  you" 

"It  was  very  natural.  But  you  ought  to  have 
known  that  I  loved  you  too  much  not  to  sacrifice  a 
publisher  to  you  if  I  had  him  fairly  in  my  hand." 

"Oh,  thank  you!  And  —  good-by.  Don't  think 
anything  more  about  it.  I  sha'n't." 


OP  THF 

{    UNIVERSITY 

or 


XXX. 

f  THERE  could  be  only  one  answer  to  the  riddle,  if 
Kane's  suggestion  that  Mr.  Brandreth  had  returned 

|  the  manuscript  without   showing  it  to  any  one  were 

I  rejected.  The  publisher  could  speak  of  no  one  be 
sides  Kane  as  a  friend  except  Miss  Hughes,  and  it 

'  was  clearly  she  who  had  refused  to  look  again  at  Ray's 
book.  She  had  played  a  double  part  with  him ;  she 
had  let  him  make  a  fool  of  himself ;  she  had  suffered 
him  to  keep  coming  to  her,  and  reading  his  things  to 
her,  and  making  her  his  literary  confidante.  He 
ground  his  teeth  with  shame  to  think  how  he  had 
sought  her  advice  and  exulted  in  her  praise ;  but  the 
question  was  not  merely,  it  was  not  primarily,  a  ques 
tion  of  truth  or  untruth,  kindness  or  unkindness  toward 
himself,  but  of  justice  toward  Kane.  He  had  told  her 
of  the  resentment  he  had  felt  toward  Kane ;  he  had 
left  her  to  the  belief  that  he  still  suspected  Kane  of 
what  she  had  done.  If  she  were  willing  that  he 
should  remain  in  this  suspicion,  it  was  worse  than 
anything  he  now  accused  her  of. 

He  kept  away  from  Chapley's  all  day,  because  of 
the  embarrassment  of  seeing  her  with  that  in  his  mind. 
He  decided  that  he  must  never  see  her  again  till  she 
showed  some  wish  to  be  relieved  from  the  false  posi- 


238  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

tion  she  had  suffered  herself  to  be  placed  in.  At  the 
end  of  the  afternoon  there  came  a  knock  at  his  door, 
and  he  set  the  door  open  and  confronted  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth,  who  stood  smiling  at  the  joke  of  his  being 
there,  with  his  lustrous  silk  hat  and  gloves  and  light 
overcoat  on.  Ray  passed  some  young  banter  with  him 
in  humorous  Recognition  of  the  situation,  before  they 
came  to  business,  as  Mr.  Brandreth  called  it. 

"  Look  here ! "  said  the  publisher,  with  a  quizzical 
glance  at  him  from  Ray's  easy-chair,  while  Ray  him 
self  lounged  on  the  edge  of  his  bed.  "  Did  you  think 
I  wanted  to  show  your  novel  to  old  Kane,  that  time 
when  I  sent  back  for  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Ray ;  and  he  could  not  say  any  more 
for  his  prescience  of  what  was  coming. 

"  Well,  I  didn't,"  Mr.  Brandreth  returned.  "  And 
if  I'd  ever  thought  you  suspected  him,  I  should  have 
told  you  so  long  ago.  The  person  that  I  did  want  it 
for  is  anxious  you  should  know  it  wasn't  Kane,  and  I 
thought  I'd  better  come  and  tell  you  so  by  word  of 
mouth ;  I  rather  made  a  mess  of  it  before,  in  writing. 
If  you've  any  feeling  about  the  matter,  it's  only  fair  to 
Kane  to  assure  you  that  he  wasn't  at  all  the  person." 

"  Kane  told  me  so  himself  to-day,"  said  Ray  ;  "  and 
all  the  grudge  I  felt  was  gone  long  ago." 

"  Well,  of  course !  It's  a  matter  of  business."  In 
turning  it  off  in  this  common-sense  way  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  added  lightly,  "  I'm  authorized  to  tell  you  who  it 
really  was,  if  you  care  to  know." 

Ray  shook  his  head.  "  I  don't  care  to  know. 
What's  the  use  ?  " 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  239 

"  There  isn't  any.  I'm  glad  you  take  it  the  way 
you  do,  and  it  will  be  a  great  relief  to  —  the  real  one." 

"It's  all  right." 

Ray  had  been  strengthening  his  defences  against 
any  confidential  approach  from  the  moment  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth  began  to  speak ;  he  could  not  help  it.  Now 
they  began  to  talk  of  other  things.  At  the  end  the 
publisher  returned  to  the  book  with  a  kind  of  desperate 
sigh  :  "  You  haven't  done  anything  with  your  story  yet, 
I  suppose  ? " 

"  No,"  said  Ray. 

Mr.  Brandreth,  after  a  moment's  hesitation,  went 
away  without  saying  anything  more.  Even  that  tenta 
tive  inquiry  about  the  fate  of  his  book  could  not 
swerve  Ray  now  from  his  search  for  the  motives 
which  had  governed  Peace  in  causing  this  message  to 
be  sent  him.  It  could  only  be  that  she  had  acted  in 
Kane's  behalf,  who  had  a  right  to  justice  from  her,  and 
she  did  not  care  what  Ray  thought  of  her  way  of  do 
ing  justice.  In  the  complex  perversity  of  his  mood 
the  affair  was  so  humiliating  to  him,  as  it  stood,  that 
he  could  not  rest  in  it.  That  evening  he  went  deter 
mined  to  make  an  opportunity  to  speak  with  her  alone, 
if  none  offered. 

It  was  she  who  let  him  in,  and  then  she  stood  look 
ing  at  him  in  a  kind  of  daze,  which  he  might  well 
have  taken  for  trepidation.  It  did  not  give  him  cour 
age,  and  he  could  think  of  no  better  way  to  begin  than 
to  say,  "I  have  come  to  thank  you,  Miss  Hughes,  for 

your  consideration   for  Mr.  Kane.     I   couldn't   have 
16 


240  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

expected  less  of  you,  when  you  found  out  that  I  had 
been  suspecting  him  of  that  friendly  refusal  to  look  at 
my  manuscript  the  second  time." 

His  hard  tone,  tense  with  suppressed  anger,  had  all 
the  effect  he  could  have  wished.  He  could  see  her 
wince,  and  she  said,  confusedly,  "  I  told  Mr.  Brandreth, 
and  he  said  he  would  tell  you  it  wasn't  Mr.  Kane." 

"  Yes,"  said  Ray,  stiffly,  "  he  came  to  tell  me." 

She  hesitated,  and  then  she  asked,  "  Did  he  tell  you 
who  it  was  ?  " 

"  No.     But  I  knew." 

If  she  meant  him  to  say  something  more,  he  would 
not;  he  left  to  her  the  strain  and  burden  that  in 
another  mood  he  would  have  shared  so  willingly,  or 
wholly  assumed. 

At  a  little  noise  she  started,  and  looked  about,  and 
then,  as  if  returning  to  him  by  a  painful  compliance 
with  his  will,  she  said,  "  When  he  told  me  what  he  had 
done  to  get  the  manuscript  back,  I  couldn't  let  him 
give  it  to  me." 

She  stopped,  and  Ray  perceived  that,  for  whatever 
reason,  she  could  say  nothing  more,  at  least  of  her  own 
motion.  But  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  leave  it  so. 

"  Of  course,"  he  said,  angrily,  "  I  need'nt  ask  you 
why." 

"  It  was  too  much  for  me  to  decide,"  she  answered, 
faintly. 

"Yes,"  he  assented,  "it's  a  good  deal  to  take 
another's  fate  in  one's  hands.  But  you  knew,"  he 
added,  with  a  short  laugh,  "you  had  my  fortune  in 
your  hands,  anyway." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  241 

"  I  didn't  see  that  then,"  she  answered,  and  she  let 
her  eyes  wander,  and  lapsed  into  a  kind  of  absence, 
which  vexed  him  as  a  slight  to  the  importance  of  the 
affair. 

"  But  it  doesn't  really  matter  whether  you  decided 
it  by  refusing  or  consenting  to  look  at  the  book  again," 
he  said.  "  The  result  would  have  been  the  same,  in 
any  case." 

She  lifted  her  eyes  to  his  with  a  scared  look,  and 
began,  "I  didn't  say  that"  —  and  then  she  stopped 
again,  and  looked  away  from  him  as  before. 

"  But  if  I  can't  thank  you  for  sparing  me  an  explicit 
verdict,"  he  pushed  on,  "  I  can  appreciate  your  consid 
eration  for  Kane,  and  I  will  carry  him  any  message 
you  will  trust  me  with."  He  rose  as  he  said  this,  and 
he  found  himself  adding,  "  And  I  admire  your  strength 
in  keeping  your  own  counsel  when  I've  been  talking 
my  book  over  with  you.  It  must  have  been  amusing 
for  you." 

When  he  once  began  to  revenge  himself  he  did  not 
stop  till  he  said  all  he  had  thought  he  thought.  She 
did  not  try  to  make  any  answer  or  protest.  She  sat 
passive  under  his  irony ;  at  times  he  thought  her 
hardly  conscious  of  it,  and  that  angered  him  the  more, 
and  he  resented  the  preoccupation,  and  then  the  dis 
traction  with  which  she  heard  him  to  the  end. 

"  Only  I  don't  understand  exactly,"  he  went  on, 
"  how  you  could  let  me  do  it,  in  spite  of  the  tempta 
tion.  I  can  imagine  that  the  loss  of  my  acquaintance 
will  be  a  deprivation  to  you ;  you'll  miss  the  pleasure 


242  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

of  leading  me  on  to  make  a  fool  of  myself;  but  you 
know  you  can  still  laugh  at  me,  and  that  ought  to 
keep  you  in  spirits  for  a  long  time.  I  won't  ask  your 
motive  in  sending  word  to  me  by  a  third  person.  I 
dare  say  you  didn't  wish  to  tell  me  to  my  face ;  and  it 
couldn't  have  been  an  easy  thing  to  write." 

"I  ought  to  have  written,"  she  said,  meekly.  "I 
see  that  now.  But  to-day,  I  couldn't.  There  is  some 
thing  —  He  offered  to  go  to  you  —  he  wished  to  ; 
and  —  I  let  him.  I  was  wrong.  I  didn't  think  how  it 
might  seem." 

"  Oh,  there  was  no  reason  why  you  should  have 
thought  of  me  in  the  matter.  I'm  glad  you  thought  of 
Mr.  Kane ;  I  don't  ask  anything  more  than  that." 

"  Oh,  you  don't  understand,"  she  began.  "  You 
don't  know  •"  — 

"  Yes,  I  understand  perfectly,  and  I  know  all  that  I 
wish  to  know.  There  was  no  reason  why  you  should 
have  protected  me  against  my  own  folly.  I  have  got 
my  deserts,  and  you  are  not  to  blame  if  I  don't  like 
them.  Good-by." 

As  he  turned  to  go,  she  lifted  her  eyes,  and  he 
could  .see  that  they  were  blind  with  tears* 

He  went  out  and  walked  up  and  down  the  long,  un 
lovely  avenue,  conscious  of  being  the  ugliest  thing  in 
it,  and  unconsciously  hammered  by  its  brutal  noises, 
while  he  tried  to  keep  himself  from  thinking  how,  in 
spite  of  all  he  had  said,  he  knewjier  to  be  tlm  souTof 
truth  and  goodness.  He  knew  that  all  he  had  said  was 
from  the  need  of  somehow  venting  his  wounded  van- 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  243 

ity.  As  far  as  any  belief  in  wrong  done  him  was  con 
cerned,  the  affair  was  purely  histrionic  on  his  part; 
but  he  had  seen  that  the  pain  he  gave  was  real ;  the 
image  of  her  gentle  sufferance  of  his  upbraiding  went 
visibly  before  him.  The  wish  to  go  back  and  own 
everything  to  her  became  an  intolerable  stress,  and 
then  he  found  himself  again  at  her  door. 

He  rang,  'and  after  waiting  a  long  time  to  hear  the 
click  of  the  withdrawing  latch,  he  rang  again.  After 
a  further  delay  the  door  opened,  and  he  saw  Hughes 
standing  at  the  top  of  the  stairs  with  a  lamp  held 
above  his  head. 

"  Who  is  there  ?  "  the  old  man  called  down,  with  his 
hoarse  voice. 

"  It's  I,  Mr.  Hughes,"  Ray  answered,  a  new  trouble 
blending  with  his  sense  of  the  old  man's  picturesque 
pose,  and  the  leonine  grandeur  of  his  shaggy  head. 
"  Mr.  Ray,"  he  explained. 

"  Oh !  "  said  Hughes.  "  I'm  glad  to  see  you.  Will 
you  come  up  ?  "  He  added,  as  Ray  mounted  to  him, 
and  they  entered  his  room  together,  "  I  am  alone  here 
for  the  time.  My  daughters  have  both  gone  out.  Will 
you  sit  down  ?  "  Ray  obeyed,  with  blank  disappoint 
ment.  Hughes  could  not  have  known  of  his  earlier 

O 

visit,  or  had  forgotten  it.  "  They  will  be  in  presently. 
Peace  was  here  till  a  little  while  ago ;  when  Ansel 
and  Jenny  came  in,  they  all  went  out  together."  He 
lapsed  into  a  kind  of  muse,  staring  absently  at  Ray 
from  his  habitual  place  beside  the  window.  He  came 
back  to  a  sense  of  him  with  words  that  had  no  evident 
bearing  upon  the  situation. 


244  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  The  thing  which  renders  so  many  reformers  nuga 
tory  and  ridiculous,  and  has  brought  contempt  and 
disaster  on  so  many  good  causes,  is  the  attempt  to 
realize  the  altruistic  man  in  competitive  conditions. 
That  must  always  be  a  failure  or  worse."  lie  went 
on  at  length  to  establish  this  position.  Then,  "  Here 
is  my  son-in-law  "  —  and  the  old  man  had  the  effect  of 
stating  the  fact  merely  in  illustration  of"  the  general 
principle  he  had  laid  down  —  "who  has  been  giving 
all  his  spare  time  this  winter  to  an  invention  in  the 
line  of  his  art,  and  had  brought  it  to  completion  within 
a  few  days.  He  has  all  along  had  misgivings  as  to  the 
moral  bearing  of  his  invention,  since  every  process  of 
the  kind  must  throw  a  number  of  people  out  of  work, 
and  he  has  shown  a  morbid  scruple  in  the  matter  which 
I  have  tried  to  overcome  with  every  argument  in  my 
power." 

"  I  thought,"  Ray  made  out  to  say,  in  the  pause 
Hughes  let  follow,  "  he  had  come  to  see  all  that  in  an 
other  light." 

"  Yes,"  the  old  man  resumed,-  "  he  has  commonly 
yielded  to  reason,  but  there  is  an  unpractical  element 
in  the  man's  nature.  In  fact,  here,  this  morning, 
while  we  supposed  he  was  giving  the  finishing  touches 
to  his  work,  he  was  busy  in  destroying  every  vestige 
of  result  which  could  commend  it  to  the  people  inter 
ested  in  it.  Absolutely  nothing  remains  to  show  that 
he  ever  had  anything  of  the  kind  successfully  in  hand." 

"Is  it  possible?"  said  Ray,  deeply  shocked.  "I 
am  so  sorry  to  hear  it "  — 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  245 

The  old  man  had  not  heard  him  or  did  not  heed 
him.  "  He  has  been  in  a  very  exalted  state  through 
the  day,  and  my  daughters  have  gone  out  to  walk  with 
him;  it  may  quiet  his  nerves.  He  believes  that  he 
has  acted  in  obedience  to  an  inner  Voice  which  gov 
erns  his  conduct.  I  know  nothing  about  such  things  ; 
but  all  such  suggestions  from  beyond  are  to  my  think 
ing  mischievous.  Have  you  ever  been  interested  in 
the  phenomena  of  spiritualism,  so-called  ?  " 

Ray  shook  his  head  decidedly.  "  Oh,  no!  "  he  said, 
with  abhorrence. 

"  Ah !  The  Family  were  at  one  time  disposed  to 
dabble  in  those  shabby  mysteries.  But  I  discouraged 
it ;  I  do  not  deny  the  assumptions  of  the  spiritualists ; 
but  I  can  see  no  practical  outcome  to  the  business  ; 
and  I  have  used  all  my  influence  with  Ansel  to  put 
him  on  his  guard  against  this  Voice,  which  seems  to 
be  a  survival  of  some  supernatural  experiences  of  his 
among  the  Shakers.  It  had  lately  been  silent,  and 
had  become  a  sort  of  joke  with  us.  But  he  is  of  a 
very  morbid  temperament,  and  along  with  this  im 
provement,  there  have  been  less  favorable  tendencies. 
He  has  got  a  notion  of  expiation,  of  sacrifice,  which  is 
perhaps  a  survival  of  his  ancestral  Puritanism.  I  sup 
pose  the  hard  experiences  of  the  city  have  not  been 
good  for  him.  They  prey  upon  his  fancy.  It  would 
be  well  if  he  could  be  got  into  the  country  somewhere ; 
though  I  don't  see  just  how  it  could  be  managed." 

Hughes  fell  into  another  muse,  and  Ray  asked, 
"  What  does  he  mean  by  expiation  ?  " 


246  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

The  old  man  started  impatiently.  "  Mere  nonsense ; 
the  rags  and  tatters  of  man's  infancy,  outworn  and 
outgrown.  The  notion  that  sin  is  to  be  atoned  for  by 
some  sort  of  offering.  It  makes  me  sick ;  and  of  late 
I  haven't  paid  much  attention  to  his  talk.  I  supposed 
he  was  going  happily  forward  with  his  work ;  I  was 
necessarily  much  preoccupied  with  my  own ;  I  have 
many  interruptions  from  irregular  health,  and  I  must 
devote  every  available  moment  to  my  wrriting.  There 
is  a  passage,  by-the-way,  which  I  had  just  completed 
when  you  rang,  and  which  I  should  like  to  have  your 
opinion  of,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  read  it  to  you.  It 
is  peculiarly  apposite  to  the  very  matter  we  have  been 
speaking  of ;  in  fact,  I  may  say  it  is  an  amplification 
of  the  truth  that  I  am  always  trying  to  impress  upon 
Ansel,  namely,  that  when  you  are  in  the  midst  of  a 
battle,  as  we  all  are  here,  you  must  fight,  and  fight  for 
yourself,  always,  of  course,  keeping  your  will  fixed  on 
the  establishment  of  a  lasting  peace."  Hughes  began 
to  fumble  among  the  papers  on  the  table  beside  him 
for  his  spectacles,  and  then  for  the  scattered  sheets  of 
his  manuscript.  "Yes,  there  is  a  special  obligation 
upon  the  friends  of  social  reform  to  a  life  of  common- 
sense.  I  have  regarded  the  matter  from  rather  a  novel 
standpoint,  and  I  think  you  will  be  interested." 

The  old  man  read  on  and  on.  At  last  Ray  heard 
the  latch  of  the  street  door  click,  and  the  sound  of  the 
opening  and  then  the  shutting  of  the  door.  A  con 
fused  noise  of  feet  and  voices  arrested  the  reading 
which  Hughes  seemed  still  disposed  to  continue,  and 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  247 

light  steps  ascended  the  stairs,  while  as  if  in  the  dark 
below  a  parley  ensued.  Ray  knew  the  high,  gentle 
tones  of  Peace  in  the  pleading  words,  "  But  try,  try  to 
believe  that  if  it  says  that,  it  can't  be  the  Voice  you 
used  to  hear,  and  that  always  told  you  to  do  what  was 
right.  It  is  a  wicked  Voice,  now,  and  you  must  keep 
saying  to  yourself  that  it  is  wicked  and  you  mustn't 
mind  it." 

"But  the  words,  the  words!  Whose  words  were 
they  ?  Without  the  shedding  of  blood  :  what  does 
that  mean?  If  it  was  a  siri  for  me  to  invent  my 
process,  how  shall  the  sin  be  remitted  ?  " 

"  There  is  that  abject  nonsense  of  his  again  !  "  said 
old  Hughes,  in  a  hoarse  undertone  which  drowned  for 
Ray  some  further  words  from  Denton.  "  It's  impos 
sible  to  get  him  away  from  that  idea.  Men  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  remission  of  sins ;  it  is  their 
business  to  cease  to  do  evil !  But  you  might  as  well 
talk  to  a  beetle  !  " 

Ray  listened  with  poignant  eagerness  for  the  next 
words  of  Peace,  which  came  brokenly  to  his  ear.  He 
heard  —  "...  justice  and  not  sacrifice.  If  you  try 
to  do  what  is  right  —  and  —  and  to  be  good,  then"  — 

"  I  will  try,  Peace,  I  will  try.  O  Lord,  help  me!  " 
came  in  Denton's  deep  tones.  "Say  the  words  again. 
The  Voice  keeps  saying  those  —  But  I  will  say  yours 
after  you ! " 

"  I  will  have  justice."  The  girl's  voice  was  lifted 
with  a  note  in  it  that  thrilled  to  Ray's  heart,  and  made 
him  start  to  his  feet ;  Hughes  laid  a  detaining  hand 
upon  his  arm. 


248  THE    WORLD    OF   CHANCE. 

"  I  will  have  justice,"'  Denton  repeated. 

"And  not  sacrifice,"  came  in  the  girl's  tremulous 
accents. 

"And  not  sacrifice,"  followed  devoutly  from  the 
man.  "  I  will  have  justice,  without  the  shedding  of 
blood  —  it  gets  mixed  ;  I  can't  keep  the  Voice  out !  — 
and  not  sacrifice.  What  is  justice  ?  What  is  justice 
but  sacrifice  ?  " 

"  Yes,  it  is  self-sacrifice !     All  our  selfish  wishes  " — 

"  I  have  burnt  them  in  a  fire,  and  scattered  their 
ashes ! " 

"  And  all  gloomy  and  morbid  thoughts  that  distress 
other  people." 

"  Oh,  you  know  I  wouldn't  distress  any  one !  You 
know  how  my  heart  is  breaking  for  the  misery  of  the 
world." 

"  Let  her  alone !  "  said  old  Hughes  to  Ray,  in  his 
thick  murmur,  as  if  he  read  Ray's  impulse  in  the 
muscle  of  his  arm.  "  She  will  manage  him." 

"  But  say  those  words  over  again  !  "  Denton  implored. 
"  The  Voice  keeps  putting  them  out  of  my  mind !  " 

She  said  the  text,  and  let  him  repeat  it  after  her 
word  by  word,  as  a  child  follows  its  mother  in  prayer. 

"  And  try  hard,  Ansel !  Remember  the  children 
and  poor  Jenny  !  " 

"  Yes,  yes.  I  will,  Peace  !  Poor  Jenny !  I'm 
sorry  for  her.  And  the  children —  You  know  I 
wouldn't  harm  any  one  for  the  whole  world,  don't 
you,  Peace  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  do  know,  Ansel,  how  good  and  kind  you 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  "249 

are  ;  and  I  know  you'll  see  all  this  in  the  true  light 
soon.     But  now  you're  excited." 

"  Well,  say  it  just  once  more,  and  then  I  shall  have 
it," 

Once  more  she  said  the  words,  and  he  after  her. 
He  got  them  straight  this  time,  without  admixture 
from  the  other  text.  There  came  a  rush  of  his  feet  on 
the  stairs,  and  a  wild  laugh. 

"  Jenny  !  Jenny  !  It's  all  right  now,  Jenny !  "  he 
shouted,  as  he  plunged  into  the  apartment,  and  was 
heard  heating  as  if  on  a  door  closed  against  him.  It 
must  have  opened,  for  there  was  a  sound  like  its 
shutting,  and  then  everything  was  still  except  a  little 
pathetic,  almost  inaudible  murmur  as  of  suppressed 
sobbing  in  the  dark  of  the  entry  below.  Presently 
soft  steps  ascended  the  stairs  and  lost  themselves  in 
the  rear  of  the  apartment. 

"  Now,  young  man,"  said  Hughes,  "  I  think  you 
had  better  go.  Peace  will  be  in  here  directly  to  look 
after  me,  and  it  will  distress  her  to  find  any  one  else. 
It  is  all  right  now." 

"  But  hadn't  I  better  stay,  Mr.  Hughes?  Can't  I 
be  of  use?" 

"  No.  I  will  defer  reading  that  passage  to  another 
time.  You  will  be  looking  in  on  us  soon  again.  We 
shall  get  on  very  well.  We  are  used  to  these  hypo- 
chrondriacal  moods  of  Ansel's." 


XXXI. 

THERE  was  nothing  for  Ray  to  do  but  to  accept  his 
dismissal.  He  got  himself  stealthily  down  stairs  and 
out  of  the  house,  but  he  could  not  leave  it.  He 
walked  up  and  down  before  it,  doubting  whether  he 
ought  not  to  ring  and  try  to  get  in  again.  When 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  this  he  saw  that  the  front 
windows  were  dark.  That  decided  him  to  go  home. 

He  did  not  sleep,  and  the  next  morning  he  made  an 
early  errand  to  the  publishers'.  He  saw  Peace  bent 
over  her  work  in  Mr.  Chapley's  room.  He  longed  to 
go  and  speak  to  her,  and  assure  himself  from  her  own 
words  that  all  was  well ;  but  he  had  no  right  to  do 
that,  and  with  the  first  stress  of  his  anxiety  abated,  he 
went  to  lay  the  cause  of  it  before  Kane. 

"  It  was  all  a  mere  chance  that  I  should  know  of 
this ;  but  I  thought  you  ought  to  know,"  he  explained. 

"  Yes,  certainly,"  said  Kane ;  but  he  was  less  moved 
than  Ray  had  expected,  or  else  he  showed  his  emotion 
less.  "Hughes  is  not  a  fool,  whatever  Denton  is; 
this  sort  of  thing  must  have  been  going  on  a  good 
while,  and  he's  got  the  measure  of  it.  I'll  speak  to 
Chapley  about  it.  They  mustn't  be  left  altogether  to 
themselves  with  it." 

As  the  days  began  to  go  by,  and  Ray  saw  Peace 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  251 

constantly  in  her  place  at  the  publishers',  his  unselfish 
anxiety  yielded  to  the  question  of  his  own  relation  to 
her,  and  how  he  should  make  confession  and  reparation. 
He  went  to  Kane  in  this  trouble,  as  in  the  other,  after 
he  had  fought  off  the  necessity  as  long  as  he  could,  but 
they  spoke  of  the  other  trouble  first. 

Then  Ray  said,  with  the  effort  to  say  it  casually,  "I 
don't  think  I  told  you  that  the  great  mystery  about  my 
manuscript  had  been  solved."  Kane  could  not  remem 
ber  at  once  what  the  mystery  was,  and  Ray  was  forced 
to  add,  "It  seems  that  the  unknown  friend  who 
wouldn't  look  twice  at  my  book  was  —  Miss  Hughes." 

Kane  said,  after  a  moment,  "  Oh !  "  and  then,  as  if  it 
should  be  a  very  natural  thing,  he  asked,  "  How  did 
you  find  that  out  ?" 

"  She  got  Mr.  Brandreth  to  tell  me  it  wasn't  you,  as 
soon  as  she  knew  that  I  had  suspected  you." 

"  Of  course.     Bid  he  tell  you  who  it  was  ?  " 

"He  was  to  tell  me  if  I  washed.  But  I  knew  it 
couldn't  be  anybody  but  she,  if  it  were  not  you,  and  I 
went  to  see  her  about  it." 

"Well?"  said  Kane,  with  a  kind  of  expectation  in 
his  look  and  voice  that  made  it  hard  for  Ray  to  go  on. 

"Well,  I  played  the  fool.  I  pretended  that  I 
thought  she  had  used  me  badly.  I  *lon't  know.  I 
tried  to  make  her  think  so." 

"  Did  you  succeed  ?  " 

"  I  succeeded  in  making  her  very  unhappy." 

"  That  was  success  —  of  a  kind,"  said  Kane,  and  he 
lay  back  in  his  chair  looking  into  the  fire,  while  Ray 


252  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

sat  uncomfortably  waiting  at  the  other  corner  of  the 
hearth. 

"  Did  she  say  why  she  wouldn't  look  at  your  manu 
script  a  second  time  ?  "  Kane  asked  finally. 

"  Not  directly." 

"  Did  you  ask  ?  " 

«  Hardly ! " 

"  You  knew  ?  " 

"  It  was  very  simple,"  said  Ray.  "  She  wouldn't 
look  at  it  because  it  wasn't  worth  looking  at.  I  knew 
that.  That  was  what  hurt  me,  and  made  me  wish  to 
hurt  her." 

Kane  offered  no  comment.  After  a  moment  he 
asked:  "Has  all  this  just  happened?  Have  you  just 
found  it  out  ?  " 

"  Oh,  it's  bad  enough,  but  isn't  so  bad  as  that,"  said 
Ray,  forcing  a  laugh.  "  Still,  it's  as  bad  as  I  could 
make  it.  I  happened  to  go  to  see  her  that  evening 
when  I  overheard  her  talk  with  Denton." 

"  Oh !     And  you  spoke  to  her  after  that  ?  " 

There  was  a  provisional  condemnation  in  Kane's 
tone  which  kindled  Ray's  temper  and  gave  him  strength 
to  retort:  "No,  Mr.  Kane!  I  spoke  to  her  before 
that;  and  it  was  when  I  came  back  —  to  tell  her  I 
was  all  wrong,  and  to  beg  her  pardon  —  that  I  saw  her 
father,  and  heard  what  I've  told  you." 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  understand ;  I  might  have  known 
that  the  other  thing  was  impossible,"  said  Kane. 

They  were  both  silent,  and  Ray's  anger  had  died 
down  into  the  shame  that  it  had  flamed  up  from, 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHAXCK.  253 

when  Kane  thoughtfully  asked,  "And  you  want  my 
advice  ?  " 

«  Yes." 

"  Concretely  ?  " 

"  As  concretely  as  possible." 

"  Then,  if  you  don't  really  know  the  reason  why  a 
girl  so  conscientious  as  Peace  Hughes  wouldn't  look 
at  your  manuscript  again  when  she  was  practically  left 
to  decide  its  fate,  I  think  you'd  better  not  go  there  any 
more." 

Kane  spoke  with  a  seriousness  the  more  impressive 
because  he  was  so  rarely  serious,  and  Ray  felt  himself 
reddening  under  his  eye. 

"Aren't  you  rather  enigmatical  ?  "  he  began. 

"No,  I  don't  think  so,"  said  Kane,  arid  then  neither 
spoke. 

Some  one  knocked  at  the  door.  Kane  called  out, 
"  Come  in  !  "  and  Mr.  Chapley  entered. 

After  he  had  shaken  hands  with  Kane  and  made  Ray 
out,  and  had  shaken  hands  with  him,  he  said,  with  not 
more  than  his  usual  dejection,  "  I'm  afraid  poor  David 
is  in  fresh  trouble,  Kane." 

"Yes?"  said  Kane,  and  Ray  waited  breathlessly  to 
hear  what  the  trouble  was. 

"  That  wretched  son-in-law  of  his  —  though  I  don't 
know  why  I  should  condemn  him  —  seems  to  have 
been  somewhere  with  his  children  and  exposed  them  to 
scarlet  fever;  and  he's  down  with  diphtheritic  sore 
throat  himself.  Peace  has  been  at  home  since  the 
I  trouble  declared  itself,  helping  take  care  of  them." 


254  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Is  it  going  badly  with  them?  "  Kane  asked. 

"  I  don't  know.  It's  rather  difficult  to  communicate 
with  the  family  under  the  circumstances." 

"  You  might  have  said  impossible,  without  too  great 
violence,  Henry,"  said  Kane. 

"I  had  thought  of  seeing  their  doctor,"  suggested 
Mr.  Chapley,  with  his  mild  sadness.  "Ah,  I  wish 
David  had  stayed  where  he  was." 

"  We  are  apt  to  think  these  things  are  accidents," 

,-  said  Kane.     "  Heaven  knows.     But  scarlet  fever  and 

diphtheria  are  everywhere,  and  they  take  better  care 

of  them  in  town  than  they  do  in  the  country.     Who 

did  you  say  their  doctor  was  ?  " 

"  Dear  me  !  I'm  sure  I  don't  know  who  he  is.  I 
promised  Mr.  Brandreth  to  look  the  matter  up,"  said 
Mr.  Chapley.  "  He's  very  anxious  to  guard  against 
any  spread  of  the  infection  to  his  own  child,  and  my 
whole  family  are  so  apprehensive  that's  it's  difficult.  I 
should  like  to  go  and  see  poor  David,  myself,  but 
they  won't  hear  of  it.  They're  quite  in  a  panic  as 
it  is.'' 

"  They're  quite  right  to  guard  against  the  danger," 
said  Kane,  and  he  added,  "  I  should  like  to  hear  David 
philosophize  the  situation.  I  can  imagine  how  he 
would  view  the  effort  of  each  one  of  us  to  escape  the 
consequences  that  we  are  all  responsible  for." 

"  It  is  civilization  which  is  in  the  wrong,"  said  Mr. 
Chapley. 

"True,"  Kane  assented.  "And  yet  our  Indians 
suffered  terribly  from  the  toothache  and  rheumatism. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE  255 

You  can  carry  your  return  to  nature  too  far,  Henry ; 
Nature  must  meet  Man%half-way."  Kane's  eye  kindled 
with  pleasure  in  his  phrase,  and  Ray  could  perceive 
that  the  literary  interest  was  superseding  the  personal 
interest  in  his  mind.  "  The  earth  is  a  dangerous 
planet ;  the  great  question  is  how  to  get  away  from  it 
alive,"  and  the  light  in  Kane's  eyes  overspread  his  face 
in  a  smile  of  deep  satisfaction  with  his  paradox. 

The  cold-blooded  talk  of  the  two  elderly  men  sent  a 
chill  to  Ray's  heart.  For  him,  at  least,  there  was  but 
one  thing  to  do ;  and  half  an  hour  later  he  stood  at 
the  open  street  door  of  the  Hughes  apartment,  looking 
up  at  Mrs.  Denton  silhouetted  against  the  light  on  the 
landing  as  he  had  first  seen  her  there. 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Denton,"  he  called  up,  "  how  are  the 
children  ?  " 

"I  —  I  don't  know.  They  are  very  sick.  The 
doctor  is  afraid  "  — • 

"  Oh !  "  Ray  groaned,  at  the  stop  she  made.  "  Can 
I  help  —  can't  I  do  something  ?  May  I  come  up  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  she  answered  mechanically,  and  Ray 
was  stooping  forward  to  mount  the  stairs  when  he 
saw  her  caught  aside,  and  Peace  standing  in  her  place. 

"  Don't  come  up,  Mr.  Ray !  You  can't  do  any  good. 
It's  dangerous." 

"  I  don't  care  for  the  danger,"  he  began.  "  Some 
one  —  some  one  must  help  you  !  Your  father  *'  — 

"My  father  doesn't  need  any  help,  and  we  don't. 
Every  moment  you  stay  makes  the  danger  worse ! " 

"  But  you,  you  are  in  danger !     You  "  — 
17 


25 G  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  It's  my  right  to  be.  But  it's  wrong  for  you.  Oh, 
do  go  away ! "  She  wrung  her  hands,  and  he  knew 
that  she  was  weeping.  "  I  do  thank  you  for  coming. 
I  was  afraid  you  would  come." 

"  Oh,  were  you  ?  "  he  exulted.  "  I  am  glad  of 
that !  You  know  how  I  must  have  felt,  when  I  came 
to  think  what  I  had  said." 

"Yes  —  but,  go,  now  !  " 

"  How  can  I  do  that  ?     I  should  be  ashamed  "  — 

"  But  you  mustn't,"  she  entreated.  "It  would  put 
others  in  danger,  too.  You  would  carry  the  infection. 
You  must  go,"  she  repeated. 

"  ^Vell,  I  shall  come  again.  I  must  know  how  it  is 
with  you.  "When  may  I  come  again !  " 

"  I  don't  know.  You  mustn't  come  inside  again." 
She  thought  a  moment.  "  If  you  come  I  will  speak 
to  you  from  that  window  over  the  door.  You  must 
keep  outside.  If  you  will  ring  the  bell  twice,  I  shall 
know  it  is  you." 

She  shut  the  door,  and  left  him  no  choice  but  to  obey. 
iLwas  not  heroic  ;  it  seemed  cowardly  ;  and  he  turned 
ruefully  away.  But  he  submitted,  and  twice  a  day, 
early  in  the  morning  and  late  at  night,  he  came  and 
rang  for  her.  The  neighbors,  such  as  cared,  under 
stood  that  he  was  the  friend  of  the  family  who  con 
nected  its  exile  with  the  world  ;  sometimes  the  passers 
mistook  these  sad  trysts  for  the  happy  lovers'  meetings 
which  they  resembled,  and  lingered  to  listen,  and  then 
passed  on. 

They   caught  only  anxious  questions  and  hopeless 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  257 

answers ;  the  third  morning  that  Ray  came,  Peace 
told  him  that  the  little  ones  were  dead. 

They  had  passed  out  of  the  world  together,  as  they 
had  entered  it,  and  Ray  stood  with  their  mother  beside 
the  grave  where  they  were  both  laid,  and  let  her  cling 
to  his  hand  as  if  he  were  her  brother.  Her  husband 
was  too  sick  to  be  with  them,  and  there  had  been 
apparently  no  question  of  Hughes's  coming,  but  Peace 
was  there.  The  weather  was  that  of  a  day  in  late 
March,  bitter  with  a  disappointed  hope  of  spring. 
Ray  went  back  to  their  door  with  the  mourners.  The 
mother  kept  on  about  the  little  ones,  as  if  the  incidents 
of  their  death  were  facts  of  a  life  that  was  still  con 
tinuing. 

"  Oh,  I  know  well  enough,"  she  broke  off  from  this 
illusion,  "  that  they  are  gone,  and  I  shall  never  see 
them  again ;  perhaps  their  father  will.  Well,  I  don't 
think  I  was  so  much  to  blame.  I  didn't  make  myself, 
and  I  never  asked  to  come  here,  any  more  than  they 
did." 

She  had  the  woe-begone  hopeless  face  which  she 
wore  the  first  day  that  Ray  saw  her,  after  the  twins 
had  thrown  her  porte-monnaie  out  of  the  car  window ; 
she  looked  stunned  and  stupefied. 

They  let  her  talk  on,  mostly  without  interruption. 
Only,  at  this  point  Peace  said,  "  That  will  be  thought 
of,  Jenny,"  and  the  other  asked,  wistfully,  "  Do  you 
think  so,  Peace  ?  Well !  " 


XXXTT. 

PEACE  did  not  come  back  to  her  work  at  the  pub 
lishers'  for  several  weeks.  The  arrears  began  to 
accumulate,  and  Mr.  Brandreth  asked  Kay  to  help 
look  after  it;  Ray  was  now  so  often  with  hirn  that 
their  friendly  acquaintance  had  become  a  confidential 
intimacy. 

Men's  advance  in  these  relations  is  rapid,  even  in 
later  life ;  in  youth  it  is  by  bounds.  Before  a  week 
of  their  daily  contact  was  out,  Ray  knew  that  Mrs. 
Chapley,  though  the  best  soul  in  the  world,  and  the 
most  devoted  of  mothers  and  grandmothers,  had,  in 
Mr.  Brandreth's  opinion,  a  bad  influence  on  his  wife, 
and  through  her  on  his  son.  She  excited  Mrs.  Bran 
dreth  by  the  long  visits  she  paid  her ;  and  she  had 
given  the  baby  medicine  on  one  occasion  at  least  that 
distinctly  had  not  agreed  with  it.  "  That  boy  has 
taken  so  much  belladonna,  as  a  preventive  of  scarlet 
fever,  that  I  believe  it's  beginning  to  affect  his  eyes. 
The  pupils  are  tremendously  enlarged,  and  he  doesn't 
notice  half  as  much  as  he  did  a  month  ago.  I  don't 
know  when  Mrs.  Chapley  will  let  us  have  Miss 
Hughes  back  again.  Of  course,  I  believe  in  taking 
precautions  too,  and  I  never  could  forgive  myself  if 
anything  really  happened.  But  I  don't  want  to  be  a 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  259 

perfect  slave  to  my  fears,  or  my  mother-in-law's, 
either —  should  you  ?  " 

He  asked  Ray  whether,  under  the  circumstances,  he 
did  not  think  he  ought  to  get  some  little  place  near 
New  York  for  the  summer,  rather  than  go  to  his 
country  home  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  Chapleys 
had  a  house,  and  where  his  own  mother  lived  the 
year  round.  When  Ray  shrank  from  the  question  as 
too  personal  for  him  to  deal  with,  Mr.  Brandreth  in 
vited  him  to  consider  the  more  abstract  proposition 
that  if  the  two  grandmothers  had  the  baby  there  to 
quarrel  over  all  summer,  they  would  leave  nothing  of 
the  baby,  and  yet  would  not  part  friends. 

"  I'll  tell  you  another  reason  why  I  want  to  be 
near  my  business  so  as  to  keep  my  finger  on  it  all  the 
time,  this  year,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  and  he  went 
into  a  long  and  very  frank  study  of  the  firm's  affairs 
with  Ray,  who  listened  with  the  discreet  intelligence 
which  made  everybody  trust  him.  "  With  Mr.  Chap- 
ley  in  the  state  he's  got  into  about  business,  when  he 
doesn't  care  two  cents  whether  school  keeps  or  not,  I 
see  that  I've  got  to  take  the  reins  more  and  more  into 
my  own  hands."  Mr.  Brandreth  branched  off  into  an 
examination  of  his  own  character,  and  indirectly  paid 
himself  some  handsome  tributes  as  a  business  man. 
"  I  don't  mean  to  say,"  he  concluded,  "  that  I've  got 
the  experience  of  some  of  the  older  men,  but  I  do 
mean  to  say  that  experience  doesn't  count  for  half  of 
what  they  claim,  in  the  book  business,  and  I  can 
prove  it  out  of  their  own  mouths.  They  all  admit 


260  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

that  nobody  can  forecast  the  fate  of  a  book.  Of  course 
if  you've  got  a  book  by  a  known  author,  you've  got 
something  to  count  on,  but  not  so  much  as  people 
think,  and  some  unknown  man  may  happen  along 
ith  a  thing  that  hits  the  popular  mood  and  outsell 
im  ten  times  over.  It's  a  perfect  lottery." 

"  I  wonder  they  let  you  send  your  lists  of  new  pub 
lications  through  the  mails,"  said  Ray,  dryly. 

"  Oh,  it  isn't  quite  as  bad  as  that,"  said  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth.  "  Though  there  are  a  good  many  blanks  too. 
I  suppose  the  moral  difference  between  business  and 
gambling  is  that  in  business  you  do  work  for  a  living, 
and  you  don't  propose  to  give  nothing  for  something, 
even  when  you're  buying  as  cheap  as  you  can  to  sell 
as  dear  as  you  can.  With  a  book  it's  even  better.  It's 
something  you've  put  value  into,  and  you  have  a  right 
to  expect  to  get  value  out  of  it.  That's  what  I  tell 
Mr.  Chapley  when  he  gets  into  one  of  his  Tolstoi 
moods,  and  wants  to  give  his  money  to  the  poor  and 
eat  his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow." 

The  two  young  men  laughed  at  these  grotesque  con 
ceptions  of  duty,  and  Mr.  Brandreth  went  on : 

"Yes,  sir,  if  I  could  get  hold  of  a  good,  strong, 
lively  novel "  — 

"  Well,  there  is  always  A  Modern  JRomeo,"  Ray 
suggested. 

Mr.  Brandreth  winced.  "  I  know."  He  added, 
with  the  effect  of  hurrying  to  get  away  from  the  sub 
ject,  "  I've  had  it  over  and  over  again  with  Mr.  Chap- 
ley  till  I'm  tired  of  it.  Well,  I  suppose  it's  his  age, 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  261 

somewhat,  too.  Every  man,  when  he  gets  to  Mr. 
Chapley's  time  of  life,  wants  to  go  into  the  country 
and  live  on  the  land.  I'd  like  to  see  him  living  on  the 
land  in  Hatboro',  Massachusetts  !  You  can  stand  up 
in  your  buggy  and  count  half-a-dozen  abandoned 
farms  wherever  you've  a  mind  to  stop  on  the  road. 
By-the-way,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  from  an  association 
of  ideas  that  Ray  easily  followed,  "  have  you  seen 
anything  of  the  book  that  Mr.  Hughes  is  writing? 
He's  got  a  good  title  for  it.  *  The  World  Revisited ' 
ought  to  sell  the  first  edition  of  it  at  a  go." 

"  Before  people  found  out  what  strong  meat  it  was  ? 
It  condemns  the  whole  structure  of  society  ;  he's  read 
me  parts  of  it." 

"  Well,  well,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  in  a  certain  per 
plexity,  "  that  might  make  it  go  too.  People  like 
strong  meat.  They  like  to  have  the  structure  of 
society  condemned.  There's  a  good  deal  of  sympathy 
with  the  underpinning ;  there's  no  use  trying  to  deny 
it  Confound  it !  I  should  like  to  try  such  a  book  as 
that  in  the  market.  But  it  would  be  regarded  by 
everybody  who  knew  him  as  an  outcome  of  Mr.  Chap- 
ley's  Tolstoi  twist." 

<;  I  understand  that  Mr.  Hughes's  views  are  entirely 
opposed  to  Tolstoi's.  He  regards  him  as  unpractical," 
I  said  Ray,  with  a  smile  for  Hughes's  practicality. 

"It  wouldn't  make  any  difference.  They  would 
call  it  Tolsto'ian  on  Mr.  Chapley's  account.  People 
don't  know.  There  was  Looking  Backward;  they 
took  that  at  a  gulp,  and  didn't  know  that  it  was  the 


262 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


>y 


'  rankest  sort  of  socialism.     My  !     If  I  could  get  hold 
/  of  a  book  like  Looking  Backward!  " 
I    "  I  might  have  it  come  out  that  the  wicked  cousin 

£•  (in  A.  Modern  Romeo  was  a  secret  Anarchist.  That 
jbught  to  make  the  book's  fortune." 

Ray  could  deal  lightly  with  his  rejected  novel,  but 

Y  even  while  he  made  an  open  jest  of  it,  the  book  was 
still  inwardly  dear  to  him.  He  still  had  his  moments 
of  thinking  it  a  great  book,  in  places.  He  was 
always  mentally  comparing  it  with  other  novels  that 
came  out,  and  finding  it  better.  He  could  not  see 
why  they  should  have  got  publishers,  and  his  book 
not  ;  he  had  to  fall  back  upon  that  theory  of  mere 
luck  which  first  so  emboldens  and  then  so  embitters 
the  heart  ;  and  the  hope  that  lingered  in  him  was  mixed 
with  cynicism. 


*J 


/  ^>» 


XXXIII. 

WHEN  Peace  came  back  to  her  work,  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth,  in  admiration  of  her  spirit,  confided  to  Ray  that 
she  had  refused  to  take  pay  for  the  time  she  had  been 
away,  and  that  no  arguments  availed  with  her. 

"They  must  have  been  at  unusual  expense  on 
account  of  this  sickness,  and  I  understand  that  the 
son-in-law  hasn't  earned  anything  for  a  month.  But 
what  can  you  do  ?  " 

"  You  can't  do  anything,"  said  Ray.  Their  poverty 
might  be  finally  reached  from  without,  and  it  was  not 
this  which  made  him  chiefly  anxious  in  his  futile  sym 
pathy  for  Peace.  He  saw  her  isolated  in  the  presence 
of  troubles  from  which  he  was  held  as  far  aloof  as  her 
father  lived  in  his  dream  of  a  practicable  golden  age. 
Their  common  sorrow,  which  ought  to  have  drawn  the 
mother  and  father  of  the  dead  children  nearer  to 
gether,  seemed  to  have  alienated  them.  After  the 
first  transports  of  her  grief  Mrs.  Denton  appeared 
scarcely  to  miss  the  little  ones ;  the  cat,  which  they 
had  displaced  so  rarely,  was  now  always  in  her  lap, 
and  her  idle,  bantering  talk  went  on,  about  anything, 
about  everything,  as  before,  but  with  something  more 
of  mockery  for  her  husband's  depressions  and  exalta 
tions.  It  might  have  been  from  a  mistaken  wish  to 


264  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

rouse  him  to  some  sort  of  renewed  endeavor  that  she 
let  her  reckless  tongue  run  upon  what  he  had  done 
with  his  process  ;  it  might  have  been  from  her  percep 
tion  that  he  was  most  vulnerable  there  ;  Ray  could  not 
decide.  For  the  most  part  Den  ton  remained  with 
drawn  from  the  rest,  a  shadow  and  a  silence  which 
they  ignored.  Sometimes  he  broke  in  with  an  irrele 
vant  question  or  comment,  but  oftener  he  evaded 
answering  when  they  spoke  to  him.  If  his  wife 
pressed  him  at  such  times  he  left  them ;  and  then 
they  heard  him  talking  to  himself  in  his  room,  after 
an  old  habit  of  his  ;  now  and  then  Ray  thought  he  was 
praying.  If  he  did  not  come  back,  Peace  followed 
him,  and  then  her  voice  could  be  heard  in  entreaty 
with  him. 

"  She's  the  only  one  that  can  do  anything  with 
Ansel,"  her  sister  lightly  explained  one  evening. 
;"  She  has  so  much  patience  with  him  ;  father  hasn't 
anymore  than  I  have;  but.  Peace  can  persuade  him 
out  of  almost  anything  except  his  great  idea  of  sac 
rifice." 
'^rrSacrifice  ?  "  Ray_repeated. 

"Yes.  I  don't  know  what  he  means.  But  he 
thinks  he's  been  very  wicked,  trying  to  invent  that 
process,  and  he  can't  get  forgiveness  without  some 
kind  of  sacrifice.  He's  found  it  in  the  Old  Testament 
somewhere,  /tell  him  it's  a  great  pity  he  didn't  live 
in  the  days  of  the  prophets ;  he  might  have  passed  for 
one.  I  don't  know  what  he's  going  to  do.  IJe^says 
we  must  make  some  sacrifice;  but  I  can't  see  what 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  265 

we've  got  left  to  sacrifice.  We  might  make  a  burnt 
offering  of  the  chairs  in  father's  stove;  the  coal's 
about  gone." 

She  stopped,  and  looked  up  at  Denton,  who  had 
come  in  with  a  book  in  his  hand ;  Peace  glided  in  be 
hind  him. 

"  Oh,  are  you  going  to  read  us  something,  Ansel  ?  " 
his  wife  asked  with  her  smile  of  thoughtless  taunting. 
"  I  don't  see  why  you  don't  give  public  readings.  You 
could  read  better  than  the  elocutionists  that  used  to 
read  to  us  in  the  Family.  And  it  wouldn't  be  taking 
the  bread  out  of  any  one  else's  mouth."  She  turned 
to  Ray :  "  You  know  Ansel's  given  up  his  place  so  as 
to  let  another  man  have  his  chance.  It  was  the  least 
he  could  do  after  he  had  tried  to  take  away  the  liveli 
hood  of  so  many  by  inventing  that  wicked  process  of 
his." 

Denton  gave  no  sign  of  having  heard  her.  He 
fixed  his  troubled  eyes  on  Ray.  "  Do  you  know  that 
poem  ?  "  he  asked,  handing  him  the  open  book. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Ray. 

"  It's  a  mistake,"  said  Denton,  "  all  a  mistake.  I 
should  like  to  write  to  Tennyson  and  tell  him  so.  I've 
•thought  it  out.  The  true  sacrifice  would  have  been 
The  best,  not  the  dearest ;  the  best." 

The  next  day  was  Sunday,  and  it  broke,  with  that 
swift,  capricious  heat  of  our  climate,  after  several  days 
of  cloudy  menace.  The  sun  shone,  and  the  streets 
were  thronged  with  people.  They  were  going  to 
church  in  different  directions,  but  there  was  every- 


2G6  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

where  a  heavy  trend  toward  the  stations  of  the  ele 
vated  road,  and  the  trains  were  crammed  with  men, 
women  and  children  going  to  the  Park.  When  Hay 
arrived  there  with  one  of  the  throngs  he  had  joined,  he 
saw  the  roads  full  of  carriages,  and  in  the  paths  black 
files  of  foot-passengers  pushing  on  past  the  seats 
packed  with  those  who  had  come  earlier,  and  sat  swel 
tering  under  the  leafless  trees.  The  grass  was  already 
green ;  some  of  the  forwarder  shrubs  were  olive-gray 
with  buds. 

Kay  walked  deep  into  the  Park.  He  came  in  sight 
of  a  bench  near  a  shelf  of  rock  in  a  by-path,  with  a 
man  sitting  alone  on  it.  There  was  room  for  two,  and 
Ray  made  for  the  place. 

The  man  sat  leaning  forward  with  his  heavy  blonde 
head  hanging  down  as  if  he  might  have  been  drunk. 
He  suddenly  lifted  himself,  and  Ray  saw  that  it  was 
Denton.  His  face  was  red  from  the  blood  that  had 
run  into  it,  but  as  it  grew  paler  it  showed  pathetically 
thin.  He  stared  at  Ray  confusedly,  and  did  not  know 
him  till  he  spoke. 

Then  he  said,  "  Oh !  "  and  put  out  his  hand.  A 
sudden  kindness  in  Ray,  more  than  he  commonly  felt 
for  the  man  whom  he  sometimes  pitied,  but  never  liked, 
responded  to  the  overture. 

"  May  I  have  part  of  your  bench  ?  "  he  asked. 

"Yes,"  said  Denton.  "Sit  down,"  and  he  made 
way  for  him.  "  It  isn't  mine ;  it's  one  of  the  few 
things  in  this  cursed  town  that  belongs  to  every  one." 

"  Well,"  said  Ray,  cheerfully,  "  I  suppose  we're  all 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  267 

proprietors  of  the  Park,  even  if  we're  not  allowed  to 
walk  on  our  own  grass." 

"  Yes  ;  but  don't  get  me  thinking  about  that. 
There's  been  too  much  of  that  in  my  life.  I  want  to 
get  away  —  away  from  it  all.  We  are  going  into  the 
country.  Do  you  know  about  those  abandoned  farms 
in  New  England  ?  Could  we  go  and  take  up  one  of 
them  ?  " 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  know.  But  what  could  you  do 
with  it,  if  you  did  ?  The  owners  left  those  farms  be 
cause  they  couldn't  live  on  them.  You  would  have  to 
fiijht  a  battle  you're  not  strong  enough  for.  Better 
wait  till  you  get  fairly  on  your  feet." 

"  Yes,  I'm  sick  ;  I'm  no  good.  But  it  would  be  ex 
piation." 

Ray  did  not  speak  at  once.  Then,  partly  because  he 
thought  he  might  be  of  use  to  the  man  by  helping  him 
to  an  objective  vision  of  what  was  haunting  him,  and 
partly  from  an  aesthetic  desire  to  pry  into  the  confusion 
of  his  turbid  soul,  he  asked :  "  Do  you  mean  for  that 
invention  of  yours  ?  " 

"  No  ;  that's  nothing  ;  that  was  a  common  crime." 

"  Well,  I  have  no  right  to  ask  you  anything  further. 
But  in  any  given  case  of  expiation,  the  trouble  is  that 
a  man  can't  expiate  alone ;  he  makes  a  lot  of  other 
people  expiate  with  him." 

I  "  Yes  ;  you  can't  even  sin  alone.  That  is  the  curse 
'of  it,  and  then  the  innocent  have  to  suffer  with  the 
sinners.  But  I  meant  —  the  children." 

"  The  children  ?  " 


,  268  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Yes  ;  I  let  them  die." 

Jlay  understood  now  that  it  was  remorse  for  his  ex 
posure  of  the  little  ones  to  contagion  which  was  prey 
ing  on  him,.  "  I  don't  think  you  were  to  blame  for 
that.  It  was  something  that  might  have  happened  to 
any  one.  For  the  sake  of  your  family  you  ought  to 
look  at  it  in  the  true  light.  You  are  no  more  respon 
sible  for  your  children's  death  than  I  am."  Ray 
stopped,  and  Denton  stared  as  if  listening. 

"  What  ?  What  ?  What  ?  "  he  said,  in  the  tone  of 
a  man  who  tries  to  catch  something  partly  heard. 
"  Did  you  hear  ?  "  he  asked.  "  They  are  both  talking 
at  once  —  writh  the  same  voice ;  it's  the  twin  nature." 
He  shook  his  head  vehemently,  and  said,  with  an  air 
of  relief :  "  Well,  now  it's  stopped.  What  did  you 
say  ? " 

"  I  didn't  say  anything,"  Ray  answered. 

"  Oh !  It  was  the  Voice,  then.  You  see  it  was  a 
mistake  not  to  do  it  sooner ;  I  ought  to  have  given 
them ;  not  waited  for  them  to  be  taken.  I  couldn't 
understand,  because  in  the  flesh  they  couldn't  speak. 
They  had  to  speak  in  the  spirit.  That  was  it  —  why 
they  died.  I  thought  that  if  I  took  some  rich  man 
who  had  made  his  millions  selfishly,  cruelly — you 
see?  —  it  would  satisfy  justice;  then  the  reign  of 
peace  and  plenty  could  begin.  But  that  was  wrong. 
That  would  have  made  the  guilty  suffer  for  the  inno 
cent  ;  and  the  innocent  must  suffer  for  the  guilty. 
Always !  There  is  no  other  atonement.  Now  I  see 
that.  Oh,  my  soul,  my  soul!  What?  No!  Yes, 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  269 

yes !  The  best,  the  purest,  the  meekest !  Always 
that!  Without  the  shedding  of  blood,  there  is  no 
remission  —  Who  do  you  think  is  the  best  person  in 
New  York  —  the  purest,  the  meekest?" 

"  Who  ?  "  Ray  echoed. 

"Yes,"  said  Denton.  Then  he  broke  off.  "She 
said,  No  !  No  !  No  !  "  He  started  up  from  the  seat. 
"  For  their  life,  their  life,  their  life  !  That  was  where 
the  wrong  was.  I  knew  it  was  all  wrong,  always. 
Oh,  my  soul,  my  soul !  What  shall  the  atonement 
be  ?  "  He  moved  away,  and  at  a  few  paces'  distance 
he  began  to  run. 

Ray  watched  him  running,  running,  till  he  was  out 
of  sight. 

He  passed  a  restless,  anxious  day,  and  in  the  even 
ing  he  could  not  keep  from  going  to  the  Hugheses'. 
He  found  them  all  together,  and  gayer  than  he  had 
seen  them  since  the  children's  death.  He  tried  to  join 
in  the  light-hearted  fun  that  Mrs.  Denton  was  making 
with  her  husband  ;  she  was  unusually  fond,  and  she 
nattered  him  with  praises  of  his  talent  and  good  looks  ; 
she  said  his  pallor  became  him. 

"  Do  you  know,"  she  asked  Ray,  "  that  we're  all 
going  to  New  Hampshire  to  live  on  an  abandoned 
farm?" 

She  made  Denton  get  his  violin,  and  he  played  a 
long  time.  Suddenly  he  stopped,  and  waited  in  the 
attitude  of  listening.  He  called  out,  "  Yes !  "  and 
struck  the  instrument  over  a  chair-top,  breaking  it  to 
splinters.  He  jumped  up  as  if  in  amaze  at  what  had 


270  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

happened ;  then  he  said  to    Peace,  "  I've   made   you 
some  kindling." 

O 

His  wife  said  with  a  smile,  "  A  man  must  do  some 
thing  for  a  living." 

Denton  merely  looked  at  her  with  a  kind  of  vague 
surprise.  After  a  moment's  suspense  he  wheeled  about 
and  caught  his  hat  from  the  wall,  and  rushed  down  the 
stairs  into  the  street. 

Hughes  came  in  from  the  front  room,  with  his  pen 
in  his  hand,  and  hoarsely  gasping.  "What  is  the 
matter  ?  "  he  weakly  whispered.  No  one  spoke,  but  the 
ruin  of  the  violin  answered  for  itself.  "  Some  more  of 
that  fool's  work,  I  suppose.  It  is  getting  past  all  endur 
ance.  He  was  always  the  most  unpractical  creature, 
and  of  late,  he's  become  utterly  worthless."  He  kept 
on  moving  his  lips  as  if  he  were  speaking,  but  no  sound 
came  from  them. 

Mrs.  Denton  burst  into  a  crowing  laugh  :  "  It's  too 
bad  Ansel  should  have  two  voices  and  father  none  at 
all !  " 

The  old  man's  lips  still  moved,  and  now  there  came 
from  them,  "  A  fool,  a  perfect  fool !  " 

"  Oh,  no,  father,"  said  Peace,  and  she  went  up  to 
the  old  man.  "  You  know  Ansel  isn't  a  fool.  You 
know  he  has  been  tried  ;  and  he  is  good,  you  know  he 
is  !  He  has  worked  hard  for  us  all ;  and  I  can't  bear 
to  have  you  call  him  names." 

"  Let  him  show  some  common-sense,  then,"  said  her 
father.  "  I  have  no  wish  to  censure  him.  But  his 
continual  folly  wears  me  out.  He  owes  it  to  the  cause, 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  271 

if  not  to  his  family,  to  be  sensible  and  —  and  —  prac 
tical.  Tell  him  I  wish  to  see  him  when  he  comes  in," 
he  added,  with  an  air  of  authority,  like  the  relic  of 
former  headship.  "  It's  high  time  I  had  a  talk  with 
him.  These  disturbances  in  the  family  are  becoming 
very  harassing.  I  cannot  fix  my  mind  on  anything." 

He  went  back  into  his  own  room,  where  they  heard 
him  coughing.  It  was  a  moment  of  pain  without  that 
dignity  which  we  like  to  associate  with  the  thought  of 
suffering,  but  which  is  seldom  present  in  it ;  Ray  did 
not  dare  to  go  ;  he  sat  keenly  sensible  of  the  squalor 
of  it,  unable  to  stir.  He  glanced  toward  Peace  for 
strength  ;  she  had  her  face  hidden  in  her  hands.  He 
would  not  look  at  Mrs.  Denton,  who  was  saying  :  "  I 
think  father  is  right,  and  if  Ansel  can't  control  himself 
any  better  than  he  has  of  late,  he'd  better  leave  us. 
It's  wearing  father  out.  Don't  you  think  he  looks 
worse,  Mr.  Ray  ?  " 

He  did  no  answer,  but  remained  wondering  what  he 
had  better  do. 

Peace  took  down  her  hands  and  looked  at  him,  and 
he  saw  that  she  wished  him  to  go.  He  went,  but  in 
the  dark  below  he  lingered,  trying  to  think  whom  he 
should  turn  to  for  help.  He  ran  over  Mr.  Chapley, 
Brandreth,  Kane  in  his  mind  with  successive  rejection, 
and  then  he  thought  of  Kane's  doctor ;  he  had  never 
really  seen  him,  but  he  feigned  him  the  wisest  and  most 
efficient  of  the  doctors  known  to  fiction.  Of  course  it 
must  be  a  doctor  whom  Ray  should  speak  to  ;  but  he 
must  put  the  affair  hypothetically,  so  that  if  the  doctor 
18 


272  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

thought  it  nothing,  no  one  would  be  compromised.  It 
must  be  a  physician  of  the  greatest  judgment,  a  man  of 
sympathy  as  well  as  sagacity  ;  no,  it  could  be  any 
sort  of  doctor,  and  he  ought  to  go  to  him  at  once. 

He  was  fumbling  in  the  dark  for  the  wire  that  pulled 
the  bolt  of  the  street  door  when  a  night-latch  was 
thrust  into  the  key-hole  outside,  and  the  door  was  burst 
open  with  a  violence  that  flung  him  back  against  the 
wall  behind  it.  Before  it  could  swing  to  again  he  saw 
Denton's  figure  bent  in  its  upward  rush  on  the  stairs  ; 
he  leaped  after  him. 

"  Now,  then  !  "  Denton  shouted,  as  they  burst  into 
the  apartment  together.  "  The  time  has  come  !  The 
time  has  come !  They  are  calling  you,  Peace !  You 
wouldn't  let  me  give  them,  and  the  Lord  had  to  take 
them,  but  they  have  reconciled  Him  to  you  ;  He  will 
accept  you  for  their  sake !  " 

Old  Hughes  had  entered  from  his  room,  and  stood 
looking  on  with  a  frowning  brows,  but  with  more  vex 
ation  than  apprehension.  "  Be  done  with  that  arrant 
nonsense  !  "  he  commanded.  "  What  stuff  are  you 
talking?" 

Denton's  wife  shrank  into  the  farthest  corner,  with 
the  cat  still  in  her  arms.  Peace  stood  in  the  middle  of 
the  room  staring  at  him.  He  did  not  heed  Hughes 
except  to  thrust  him  aside  as  he  launched  himself 
towards  the  girl. 

Ray  slipped  between  them,  and  Denton  regarded  him 
with  dull  wavering  eyes  like  a  drunken  man's.  "  Oh, 
you're  here  still,  are  you  ?  "  he  said  ;  a  cunning  gleam 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  273 

came  into  his  eyes,  and  he  dropped  his  voice  from  its 
impassioned  pitch.  He  kept  his  right  hand  in  his  coat 
pocket,  and  Ray  watched  that  hand  too  solely.  Denton 
flashed  past  him,  and  with  his  left  swept  away  the 
hands  which  Peace  mechanically  lifted  to  her  face,  and 
held  them  in  his  grip.  Ray  sprang  upon  him,  and 
pinioned  his  right  wrrist. 

"  Hold  him  fast !  "  Hughes  added  his  grip  to  Ray's. 
"  He's  got  something  in  his  pocket,  there  !  Run  to 
the  window,  Jenny,  and  call  for  help  !  " 

"  No,  no,  Jenny,  don't !  "  Peace  entreated.  "  Don't 
call  out.  Ansel  won't  hurt  me  !  I  know  he'll  listen 
to  me  ;  won't  you  Ansel  ?  Oh,  what  is  it  you  want  to 
do?" 

"  Here  !  "  cried  Denton.  "  Take  it !  In  an  instant 
you  will  be  with  them !  The  sin  will  be  remitted." 
He  struggled  to  reach  her  lips  with  the  hand  which  he 
had  got  out  of  his  pocket.  Old  Hughes  panted  out : 

"  Open  his  fist !    Tear  it  open.     If  I  had  a  knife" — 

"  Oh,  don't  hurt  him  !  "  Peace  implored.  "  He  isn't 
hurting  me." 

Denton  suddenly  released  her  wrists,  and  she  sank 
senseless.  Ray  threw  himself  on  his  knees  beside  her, 
and  stretched  his  arms  out  over  her. 

Denton  did  not  look  at  them ;  he  stood  a  moment 
listening  ;  then  with  a  formless  cry  he  whirled  into  the 
next  room.  The  door  shut  crashing  behind  him,  and 
then  there  came  the  noise  of  a  heavy  fall  within.  The 
rush  of  a  train  made  itself  loudly  heard  in  the  silence. 

A  keen  bitter  odor  in  the  air  rapt  Ray  far  away  to 


274  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

an  hour  of  childhood  when  a  storm  had  stripped  the 
blossoms  from  a  peach-tree  by  the  house,  and  he  noted 
with  a  child's  accidental  observance  the  acrid  scent 
which  rose  from  them. 

"  That  is  prussic  acid,"  Hughes  whispered,  and  he 
moved  feebly  towards  the  door  and  pushed  it  open. 
Denton  lay  on  the  floor  with  his  head  toward  the 
threshold,  and  the  old  man  stood  looking  down  into  his 
dead  face. 

"  It  must  have  been  that  which  he  had  in  his  hand." 


XXXIV. 

"  WELL,  old  fellow,  I've  got  some  good  news  for 
you,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  when  Ray  showed  himself 
at  the  door  of  the  publisher's  little  den  the  next  morn 
ing.  Ray  thought  that  he  carried  the  record  of  the 

o  •/  o 

event  he  had  witnessed  in  every  lineament,  but  Mr. 
Brandreth  could  have  seen  nothing  unusual  in  his 
face.  "The  editor  of  Every  Evening  has  just  been 
here,  and  he  wants  to  see  you  about  taking  hold  of  his 
literary  department."  Ray  stared  blankly.  Mr. 
Brandreth  went  on  with  generous  pleasure :  "  He's 
had  some  trouble  with  the  man  who's  been  doing  it, 
and  it's  come  to  a  complete  break  at  last,  and  now  he 
wants  you  to  try.  He's  got  some  new  ideas  about  it. 
He  wants  to  make  something  specially  literary  of  the 
Saturday  issue ;  he  has  a  notion  of  restoring  the  old- 
fashioned  serial.  If  you  take  charge,  you  could  work 
in  the  Modern  Romeo  on  him  ;  and  then,  if  it  succeeds 
as  a  serial,  we  can  republish  it  in  book  form !  Better 
see  him  at  once!  Isn't  it  funny  how  things  turn  out? 
He  said  he  was  coining  down  town  in  a  Broadway 
car,  and  happened  to  catch  sight  of  Coquelin's  name 
on  a  poster  at  the  theatre,  and  it  made  him  think  of 
you.  He'd  always  liked  that  thing  you  did  for  him, 
and  when  he  got  down  here,  he  jumped  out  and  came 


276  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

in  to  ask  about  you.     I  talked  you  into  him  good  and 
strong,  and  he  wants  to  see  you." 

Ray  listened  in  nerveless  passivity  to  news  that 
would  have  transported  him  with  hope  a  few  hours 
before.  Mr.  Brandreth  might  well  have  mistaken  his 
absent  stare  for  the  effect  of  such  a  rapture.  He  said, 
as  a  man  does  when  tempted  a  little  beyond  prudence 
by  the  pleasure  he  is  giving : 

"  The  fact  is,  I've  been  thinking  about  that  work  of 
yours,  myself.  I  want  to  try  some  novel  for  the 
summer  trade ;  and  I  want  you  to  let  me  see  it  again. 
I  want  to  read  it  myself  this  time.  They  say  a  pub 
lisher  oughtn't  to  know  anything  about  the  inside  of  a 
book,  but  I  think  we  might  make  an  exception  of 
yours."  Ray's  face  remained  unchanged,  and  Mr. 
Brandreth  now  asked,  with  a  sudden  perception  of  its 
strangeness  :  "  Hello  !  What's  the  matter  ?  Any- 
\  thing  gone  wrong  with  you  ?  " 
*  "  No,  no,"  Ray  struggled  out,  "  not  with  me. 


; 


"  Nothing  new  with  the  Hugheses,  I  hope  ?  "  said 
Mr.  Brandreth,  with  mounting  alarm.  "  Miss  Hughes 
was  to  have  come  back  to  work  this  morning,  but  she 
hasn't  yet.  No  more  diphtheria,  I  hope  ?  By  Jove, 
my  dear  fellow,  I  don't  think  you  ought  to  come  here 
^  if  there  is  !  I  don't  think  it's  quite  fair  to  me." 

"It  isn't  diphtheria,"  Ray  gasped.  "But  they're 
in  great  trouble.  I  hardly  know  how  to  tell  you. 
That  wretched  creature,  Denton,  has  killed  himself. 
He's  been  off  his  base  for  some  time^  an^  I've  been 


9 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  277 

dreading  —  I've  been  there  all  night  with  them.  He 
took  prussic  acid  and  died  instantly.  Mr.  Hughes  and 
I  had  a  struggle  with  him  to  prevent  —  prevent  him  ; 
and  the  old  man  got  a  wrench,  and  then  he  had  a 
hemorrhage.  He  is  very  weak  from  it,  but  the 
doctor's  brought  him  round  for  the  present.  Miss 
Hughes  wanted  me  to  come  and  tell  you." 

"  Has  it  got  out  yet  ?  "  Mr.  Brandreth  asked.  "  Are 
the  reporters  on  to  it  ?  " 

"  The  fact  has  to  come  out  officially  through  the 
doctor,  but  it  isn't  known  yet." 

"  I  wish  it  hadn't  happened,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth. 
"  It  will  be  an  awful  scandal." 

There  had  been  a  moment  with  Ray  too  when  the 
scandal  of  the  fact  was  all  he  felt.  "  Yes,"  he  said, 
^mechanically. 

"  You  see,"  Mr.  Brandreth  explained,  "  those  fellows 
will  rummage  round  in  every  direction,  for  every  bit 
of  collateral  information,  relevant  and  irrelevant,  and 
they  will  make  as  much  as  they  can  of  the  fact  that 


Miss  Hughes  was  employed  here." 
V^  "  I  see,"  said  Ray. 

s  Mr.  Brandreth  fell  into  a  rueful  muse,  but  he 
Clucked  himself  out  of  it  with  self-reproachful  decency. 
"  It's  awful  for  them,  poor  things  !  " 

"It's  the  best  thing  that  could  have  happened,  under 
the  circumstances,"  said  Ray,  with  a  coldness  that  sur 
prised  himself,  and  a  lingering  resentment  toward 
Den  ton  that  the  physical  struggle  had  left  in  his 
nerves.  "  It  was  a  question  whether  he  should  kill 


278  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

himself,  or  kill  some  one  else.  He  had  a  mania  of 
sacrifice,  of  atonement.  Somebody  had  to  be  offered 
fe  was  a  cfljnk."  Ray  pronounced  the  word 
dth  a  strong  disgust,  as  if  there  were  nothing  worse 
to  be  said  of  a  man.  He  paused,  and  then  he  went 
on.  "  I  shall  have  to  tell  you  all  about  it,  Bran- 
dreth ; "  and  he  went  over  the  event  again,  and  spared 
nothing. 

Mr.  Brandreth  listened  with  starting  eyes.  As  .if 
the  additional  details  greatly  discouraged  him,  he  said, 
"  I  don't  think  those  things  can  be  kept  from  coming 
out.  It  will  be  a  terrible  scandal.  Of  course,  I  pity 
the  family  ;  and  Miss  Hughes.  It's  strange  that  they 
could  keep  living  on  with  such  a  danger  hanging  over 
them  for  weeks  and  months,  and  not  try  to  do  any 
thing  about  it  —  not  have  him  shut  up." 

"  The  doctor  says  we've  no  idea  what  sort  of  things 
people  keep  living  on  with,"  said  Ray,  gloomily. 
"  The  danger  isn't  always  there,  and  the  hope  is.  The 
trouble  keeps  on,  and  in  most  cases  nothing  happens. 
The  doctor  says  nothing  would  have  happened  in  this 
case,  probably,  if  the  man  had  staid  quietly  in  the 
country,  in  the  routine  he  was  used  to.  But  when  he 
had  the  stress  of  new  circumstances  put  on  him,  with 
the  anxieties  and  the  chances,  and  all  the  miseries 
around  him,  his  mind  gave  way ;  I  don't  suppose  it 
was  ever  a  very  strong  one." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  see  how  the  strongest  stands  it,  in  this 
infernal  hurly-burly,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  with  an 
introspective  air.  He  added,  with  no  effect  of  relief 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  279 

from  his  reflection,  "  I  don't  know  what  I'm  going  to 
say  to  my  wife  when  all  this  comes  out.  I've  got  to 
prepare  her,  somehow  —  her  and  her  mother.  Look 
here !  Why  couldn't  you  go  up  to  Mr.  Chapley's  with 
me,  and  see  him?  He  wasn't  very  well,  yesterday, 
and  said  he  wouldn't  be  down  till  this  afternoon.  My 
wife's  going  there  to  lunch,  and  we  can  get  them  all 
together  before  the  evening  papers  are  out.  Then  I 
think  we  could  make  them  see  it  in  the  right  light. 
What  do  you  say  ?  " 

"  I  don't  see  why  I  shouldn't  go  with  you.  If  I 
can  be  of  any  use,"  said  Ray,  with  an  inward  regret 
that  he  could  think  of  no  excuse  for  not  going. 

"  I  think  you  can  be  of  the  greatest  use,"  said  Mr. 
Brandreth.  He  called  a  clerk,  and  left  word  with 
him  that  he  should  not  be  in  again  till  after  lunch. 
"You  see,"  he  explained,  as  they  walked  out  to 
gether,  "  if  we  can  get  the  story  to  Mrs.  Brandreth 
and  her  mother  before  it  comes  to  them  in  print  it 
won't  seem  half  as  bad.  Some  fellow  is  going  to  get 
hold  of  the  case  and  work  it  for  all  it  is  worth.  He 
is  going  to  unearth  Mr.  Hughes's  whole  history,  and 
exploit  him  as  a  reformer  and  a  philosopher.  He's 
going  to  find  out  everybody  who  knows  him,  or  has 
ever  had  anything  to  do  with  him,  and  interview 
people  right  and  left." 

Ray  had  to  acknowledge  that  this  was  but  too  prob 
able.  He  quailed  to  think  of  the  publicity  which  he 
must  achieve  in  the  newspapers,  and  how  he  must 
figure  before  the  people  of  Midland,  who  had  expected 
such  a  different  celebrity  for  him. 


280  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"You  must  look  out  for  yourself.  I'm  going  to 
put  Mr.  Chapley  on  his  guard,  and  warn  the  ladies  not 
to  see  any  reporters  or  answer  any  questions.  By- 
the-way,  does  Mr.  Kane  know  about  this  yet  ?  " 

"  I've  just  come  from  his  place  ;  he  wasn't  at  home ; 
I  left  a  note  for  him." 

"  I  wonder  if  we  hadn't  better  go  round  that  way 
and  tell  him  ?  "  Mr.  Brandreth  faltered  a  moment, 
and  then  pushed  on.  "  Or,  no !  He's  a  wary  old 
bird,  and  I  don't  think  he'll  say  anything  that  will 
commit  anybody."  They  walked  on  in  silence  for 
awhile  before  Mr.  Brandreth  said,  with  an  air  of 
relevance,  "  Of  course,  I  shouldn't  want  you  to  count 
too  much  upon  our  being  able  to  do  anything  with 
your  book  this  year,  after  all." 

"  Of  course,"  said  Ray.  "  If  I'm  mixed  up  with 
this  business  in  the  papers,  my  name  won't  be  a  very 
good  one  for  a  respectable  house  to  conjure  with  for 
some  years  to  come.  Perhaps  never." 

At  that  moment  he  was  mere  egorst,  feeling  nothing 
but  the  mockery  and  the  malice  of  fortune ;  all  his 
compassion  for  the  hapless  creatures  whose  misery  had 
involved  him  died  within  him. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mean  that,  exactly,"  said  Mr.  Bran 
dreth.  "  But  isn't  it  curious  how  we're  all  bound  to 
gether  here?  It's  enough  to  make  one  forswear  all 
intercourse  with  his  fellow-beings.  Here  we  are  in 
same  boat  with  people  whom  I  didn't  know  the  ex 
istence  of  six  months  ago ;  and  because  Mr.  Chapley 
has  stood  by  his  old  friend  and  tried  to  help  him 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


281 


ng,  he  will  probably  be  pilloried  with  him  before 
he  public  as  a  fellow-Tolsto'ian,  and  people  all  over 
e  country  that  used  to  order  their  books  through  us 
will  think  we're  in  sympathy  with  the  anarchists,  and 
on't  have  any  more  to  do  with  us   than  if  we  had 
ublished  the  Kreuzer  Sonata." 

Ray  thought  how  he  had  never  asked  to  know  the 
Hugheses  at  all,  and  was  not  justly  responsible  for 
them,  even  through  a  tie  of  ancient  friendship.  But 
in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Brandreth's  shameless  anxie 
ties,  he  was  ashamed  to  air  his  own.  He  only  said, 
cynically  :  "  Yes,  it  appears  that  a  homicidal  lunatic 
can't  take  himself  harmlessly  out  of  the  world.  His 
ate  reaches  out  in  every  direction,  and  covers  < -vi-ry- 

ijody  that  knew  him  with  confusion.     And  they  talk 
)f  a  moral  government  of  the  universe !  " 
""''"Yes!"   said  Mr.  Brandreth,  with  as  much  satis 
faction  in  Ray's  scorn  of  the  order  of  things  as  his 
mild  nature  could  probably  feel. 

At  Mr.  Chapley's  house  they  learned  that  Mrs. 
Brandreth  had  brought  the  baby  to  spend  the  day 
with  her  mother.  Her  sister,  whom  Ray  knew,  met 
the  two  men  at  the  door  on  her  way  out  to  a  young 
ladies'  lunch,  arid  told  them  they  would  find  her  father 
in  his  library.  She  said  Mr.  Kane  was  there  with 
him ;  and  Mr.  Brandreth,  with  a  glance  at  Ray, 
said,  "Well,  that's  first-rate!"  and  explained,  as  tlx-y 
pii-h«-d  on  upstairs,  "  He  may  be  able  to  suggest 
something." 

Kane  did  not  suggest  anything  at  once.      He  lis- 


282  THE    WOULD    OF    CHANCE. 

tened  in  silence  and  without  apparent  feeling  to  Ray's 
story. 

"  Dear  me  !  "  Mr.  Chapley  lamented.  "  Dreadful, 
dreadful !  Poor  David  must  be  in  a  sad  state  about 
it !  And  I'm  not  fit  to  go  to  him !  " 

"  He  wouldn't  expect  you,  sir,"  Mr.  Brandreth  be 
gan. 

"  I  don't  know ;  he  would  certainly  come  to  me  if  I 
were  in  trouble.  Dear,  dear !  Was  the  hemorrhage 
very  exhausting,  Mr.  —  er —  Ray  ?  " 

Ray  gave  the  doctor's  word  that  there  was  no  imme 
diate  danger  from  it,  and  Mr.  Brandreth  made  haste  to 
say  that  he  had  come  to  tell  the  ladies  about  the  affair 
before  they  saw  it  in  the  papers,  and  to  caution  them 
against  saying  anything  if  reporters  called. 

"  Yes,  that's  very  well,"  said  Mr.  Chapley.  "  But  I 
see  nothing  detrimental  to  us  in  the  facts." 

"No,  sir.  Not  unless  they're  distorted,  and  —  in 
connection  with  your  peculiar  views,  sir.  When  those 
fellows  get  on  to  your  old  friendship  with  Mr.  Hughes, 
and  his  peculiar  views,  there's  no  telling  what  they 
won't  make  of  them."  Kane  glanced  round  at  Ray 
with  arched  eyes  and  pursed  mouth.  Mr.  Brandreth 
turned  toward  Ray,  and  asked  sweetly,  "  Should  you 
mind  my  lighting  one  of  those  after-dinner  pastilles?" 
He  indicated  the  slender  stem  in  the  little  silver-holder 
on  the  mantel.  "  Of  course  there's  no  danger  of  in 
fection  now  ;  but  it  would  be  a  little  more  reassuring  to 
my  wife,  especially  as  she's  got  the  boy  here  with  her." 

"  By  all  means,"  said  Ray,  and  the  pastille  began 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  283 

sending  up  a  delicate  thread  of  pungent  blue  smoke, 
while  Mr.  Brandreth  went  for  his  wife  and  mother-in- 
law. 

"It  seems  to  me  you're  in  a  parlous  state,  Henry," 
said  Kane.  "  I  don't  see  but  you'll  have  to  renounce 
Tolstoi  and  all  his  works  if  you  ever  get  out  of  this 
trouble.  I'm  sorry  for  you.  It  takes  away  half  the 
isatisfaction  I  feel  at  the  lifting  of  that  incubus  from 
jpoor  David's  life.  I  think  I'd  better  go."  He  rose, 
'and  went  over  to  give  his  hand  to  Mr.  Chapley,  where 
[he  sat  in  a  reclining-chair. 

"  Mr.  Chapley  clung  to  him,  and  said  feebly  :  "  No,  no ! 
Don't  go,  Kane.     We  shall  need  your  advice,  and  — 
an(l —  counsel,"  and  while  Kane  hesitated,  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  came  in  with  the  ladies,  who  wore  a  look  of  mys 
tified  impatience. 

"  I  thought  they  had  better  hear  it  from  you,  Mr. 
Ray,"  he  said,  and  for  the  third  time  Ray  detailed  the 
tragical  incidents.  He  felt  as  if  he  had  been  inculpa 
ting  himself. 

Then  Mrs.  Chapley  said  :  u  It  is  what  we  might  have 
expected  from  the  beginning.  But  if  it  will  be  a 
warning  to  Mr.  Chapley" 

Mrs.  Brandreth  turned  upon  her  mother  with  a  tone 
that  startled  Mr.  Chapley  from  the  attitude  of  gentle 
sufferance  in  which  he  sat  resting  his  chin  upon  his 
hand.  "I  don't  see  what  warning  there  can  be  for 
papa  in  such  a  dreadful  thing.  Do  you  think  he's 
likely  to  take  prussic  acid  ?  " 

"  I   don't  say  that,  you  know  well    enough,  child. 


!*>' 


284  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

But  I  shall  be  quite  satisfied  if  it  is  the  last  of  Tol- 
stoism  in  this  family." 

• — ^It  has  nothing  to  do  with  Tolstoi,"  Mrs.  Brandreth 
returned,  with  surprising  energy.  "  If  wre'd  all  been 
living  simply  in  the  country,  that  wretched  creature's 
mind  wouldn't  have  been  preyed  upon  by  the  misery  of 
the  city." 

*  "  There's  more  insanity  in  proportion  to  the  popula 
tion  in  the  country  than  there  is  in  the  city,"  Mrs. 
Chapley  began. 

Mrs.  Brandreth  ignored  her  statistical  contribution. 
"  There's  no  more  danger  of  father's  going  out  to  live 
on  a  farm,  or  in  a  community,  than  there  is  of  his  tak 
ing  poison;  and  at  any  rate  he  hasn't  got  anything  to 
do  with  wrhat's  happened.  He's  just  been  faithful  to 
his  old  friend,  and  he's  given  his  daughter  work.  I 
don't  care  how  much  the  newspapers  bring  that  in.  We 
haven't  done  anything  wrong." 

Mr.  Brandreth  looked  at  his  wife  in  evident  surprise ; 
her  mother  said,  "  Well,  my  dear !  " 

Her  father  gently  urged :  "  I  don't  think  you've 
quite  understood  your  mother.  She  doesn't  look  at  life 
from  my  point  of  view." 

"No,  Henry,  I'm  thankful  to  say  I  don't,"  Mrs. 
Chapley  broke  in  ;  "  and  I  don't  know  anybody  who 
does.  If  I  had  followed  you  and  your  prophet,  we 
shouldn't  have  had  a  roof  over  our  heads." 

"A  good  many  people  have  no  roofs  over  their 
heads,"  Mr.  Chapley  meekly  suggested. 

"  That's  no  reason  why  we  shouldn't,"  said  his  wife. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  285 

"  No ;  you're  right  there,  my  clear.  That's  the 
hopeless  part  of  it.  Perhaps  poor  David  is  right,  and 
the  man  who  attempts  to  solve  the  problem  of  altruism 
singly  and  in  his  own  life"  — 

Mrs.  BrandrethTwould  not  let  him  finish.  "  The 
question  is,  what  are  wre  going  to  do  for  these  poor 
things  in  their  trouble?'*  She  looked  at  Kay,  wrho 
had  sat  by  trying  in  his  sense  of  intrusion  and  super 
fluity  to  shrink  into  as  small  a  space  as  possible.  He 
now  blushed  to  find  himself  appealed  to.  He  had  not 
seen  Mrs.  Brandreth  often,  and  he  had  not  reversed 
his  first  impression  of  a  narrow,  anxious,  housewifely 
spirit  in  her,  sufficient  to  the  demands  of  young  moth 
erhood,  but  of  few  and  scanty  general  sympathies. 
"  When  did  you  see  them  last?  "  she  asked. 

He  told  her,  and  she  said,  "Well,  I  am  going  right 
up  there  with  Percy." 

"  And  brinsr  back  the  scarlet  fever  to  your  child !  " 

c5  *- 

cried  her  mother.  "  You  shall  neither  of  you  go,  as 
long  as  I  have  anything  to  say  about  it.  Or,  if  you 
do,  you  shall  not  come  back  to  this  house,  and  I  shall 
keep  the  baby  here  till  there  isn't  the  least  fear 
of  danger ;  and  I  don't  know  how  long  that  will  be." 
All  the  grandmother  rose  in  Mrs.  Chapley  ;  she  lifted 
her  voice,  and  in  the  transport  of  her  alarm  and  indig 
nation  she  suddenly  appealed  to  Mr.  Kane  from  the 
wilfulness  she  evidently  feared  in  her  daughter: 
"What  do  you^think,  Mr.  Kane?" 

"  I  wouldn't  presume  to  decide  such  a  question 
finally ;  it's  too  important,"  Kane  said,  in  his  mellow 


286  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

murmur.  "  But  I  wish  that  for  the  moment  Mrs. 
Brandreth  would  let  me  be  the  bearer  of  her  kind 
messages  and  inquiries.  If  you  haven't  been  in  the 
habit  of  calling  there  "  — 

"  I  have  never  been  there  at  all,  I'm  sorry  to  say," 
Mrs.  Brandreth  frankly  declared. 

"Ah!  Well,  I  don't  see  what  good  could  come  of 
it,  just  at  present ;  and  there  might  be  some  lingering 
infection." 

"It  has  been  carried  in  clothes  across  the  ocean 
months  afterwards,  and  in  letters,"  Mrs.  Chapley  tri 
umphed. 

Kane  abandoned  the  point  to  her.     "  The  situation 

might  be  very  much  worse  for  the  Hugheses,  as  I  was 

saying  to  Henry  before  you  came  in.     The  Powers  are 

not  commonly  so  considerate.    It  seems  to  me  distinctly 

V\he  best  thing  that  could  have  happened,  at  least  as  far 

/  as  Den  ton  is  concerned." 

" Surely,"  said  Mrs.  Chapley,  "you  don't  approve  of 
suicide  ?  " 

"  Xot  in  the  case  of  sane  and  happy  people,"  Kane 
blandly  replied.  "  The  suicide  of  such  persons  should 
punished  with  the  utmost  rigor  of  the  law.  But 
there  seem  to  be  extenuating  circumstances  in  the 
present  instance ;  I  hope  the  coroner's  jury  will  deal 
leniently  with  the  culprit.  I  must  go  and  see  if  I  can 
do  anything  for  David.  Probably  I  can't.  It's 
always  a  question  in  these  cases  whether  you  are  not 
adding  to  the  sufferings  of  the  mourners  by  your 
efforts  to  alleviate  them ;  but  you  can  only  solve  it  at 
their  expense  by  trying." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  287 

"And  you  will  let  us  know,"  said  Mrs.  Chapley, 
"  whether  we  can  do  anything,  Mr.  Kane." 

Mrs.  Brandreth  did  not  openly  persist  in  her  deter 
mination  to  go  to  the  Hugheses.  She  said,  "  Yes,  be 
sure  you  let  us  know,"  and  when  Kane  had  gone  on  an 
errand  of  mercy  which  he  owned  was  distasteful  to 
him,  her  husband  followed  Ray  down  to  the  door. 

"  You  see  what  splendid  courage  she  has,"  he  whis 
pered,  with  a  backward  glance  up  the  stairs.  "  I  must 
confess  that  it  surprised  me,  after  all  I've  seen  her  go 
through,  that  stand  she  took  with  her  mother.  But  I 
don't  altogether  wonder  at  it;  they  were  disagreeing 
about  keeping  up  the  belladonna  when  I  found  them, 
upstairs,  and  I  guess  Mrs.  Brandreth's  opposition  natu 
rally  carried  over  into  this  question  about  the  Hugheses. 
Of  course  Mrs.  Chapley  means  well,  but  if  Mrs. 
Brandreth  could  once  be  got  from  under  her  influence 
she  would  be  twice  the  woman  she  is.  I  think  she's 
right  about  the  effect  of  our  connection  with  the  fam 
ily  before  the  public.  They  can't  make  anything 
wrong  out  of  it,  no  matter  how  they  twist  it  or  turn  it. 
I'm  not  afraid.  After  all,  it  isn't  as  if  Mr.  Hughes 
was  one  of  those  howling  socialists.  An  old-time 
Brook  Farmer  —  it's  a  kind  of  literary  tradition ;  it's 
likeUetn^air  original  abolitionist.  I'm  going  to  see  if 
I  can't  get  a  glimpse  of  that  book  of  his  without  com- 
onitting  myself.  Well,  let  me  know  how  you  get  on. 
I  wouldn't  let  that  chance  on  Every  Evening  slip. 
Better  see  the  man.  Confound  the  papers !  I  hope 

they  won't  drag  us  in  !  " 
19 


XXXV. 

A  FEW  lines,  with  some  misspelling  of  names,  told 
the  story  of  the  suicide  and  inquest  in  the  afternoon 
papers,  and  it  dwindled  into  still  smaller  space  and 
finer  print  the  next  morning.  The  publicity  which 
those  least  concerned  had  most  dreaded  was  spared 
them.  Ray  himself  appeared  in  print  as  a  witness 
named  Bray  ;  there  was  no  search  into  the  past  of 
Hughes  and  his  family,  or  their  present  relations  ;  none 
of  the  rich  sensations  of  the  case  were  exploited; 
it  was  treated  as  one  of  those  every-day  tragedies  with 
out  significance  or  importance,  which  abound  in  the 
history  of  great  cities,  and  are  forgotten  as  rapidly  as 
they  occur.  The  earth  closed  over  the  hapless  wretch 
•,  for  whom  the  dreanTof~duty  tormentmg~iis  all,  more  or 
A"  less,  had  turned  to  such  a  hideous  nightmare,  and  those 
whom  his  death  threatened  even  more  than  his  life 
c^rew  consciously  or  unconsciously  a  long  breath  of 
freedom. 

Mr.  Brandreth's  courage  rose  with  his  escape  ;  there 


\ 

lay 
P  ^ 

"vVjJ"          came  a  moment  when  he  was  ready  to  face  the  worst  ; 
Y 


"v" 

the  moment  did  not  come  till  the  daner  of  the  worst 


Y       4       the  moment  did  not  come  till  the  dan 
/yr  was   past.     Then   he  showed   himself 

i/v\    retrieve  the  effect  of  anxieties  not  compatible  with 
scrupulous  self-respect. 


a 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  289 

"  Why  should  we  laugh    at  him  ? "  Kane  philoso 
phized,  iii  talking  the  matter  over  with  Ray.     "  The^ 
ideals  of  generosity  and  self-devotion  are  preposterous 
in  our  circumstances.     He  was  quite  right  to  be  cau 
tious,  to  be  prudent,  to  protect  his  business  and  his      ;  o 
bosom  from  the  invasion  of  others'  misfortunes,  and  to 
look  anxiously  out  for  the  main  chance.     "Who  would  <  *-• 
do  it  for  him,  if  he  neglected  this  first  and  most  obvi-       0^* 
ous  duty?     He   has   behaved   most  thoughtfully  and' 
kindly  toward  Peace  through  it  all,  and  I  can't  blame 
him  for  not  thrusting  himself   forward   to  offer  help 
when  nothing  could  really  be  done." 

Kane  had  himself  remained  discreetly  in  the  back 
ground,  and  had  not  cumbered  his  old  acquaintance 
with  offers  of  service.  He  kept  away  from  the 
funeral,  but  he  afterwards  visited  Hughes  frequently, 
though  he  recognized  nothing  more  than  the  obligation 
of  the  early  kindness  between  them.  This  had  been 
affected  by  many  years  of  separation  and  wide  diver 
gence  of  opinion,  and  it  was  doubtful  whether  his  visits 
were  altogether  a  pleasure  to  the  invalid.  They  dis 
puted  a  good  deal,  and  sometimes  when  Hughes  lost 
his  voice  from  excitement  and  exhaustion,  Kane's  deep 
pipe  kept  on  in  a  cool  smooth  assumption  of  positions 
which  Hughes  was  physically  unable  to  assail. 

Mr.  Chapley  went  out  of  town  to  his  country  place 
in  Massachusetts,  to  try  and  get  back  his  strength  after 
a  touch  of  the  grippe.  The  Sunday  conventicles  had 
to  be  given  up  because  Hughes  could  no  longer  lead 
them,  and  could  not  suffer  the  leadership  of  others.  He 


290  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

was  left  mainly  for  society  and  consolation  to  the  young 
fellow  who  did  not  let  him  feel  that  he  differed  from 
him,  and  was  always  gently  patient  with  him. 

Ray  had  outlived  the  grudge  he  felt  at  Kane  for 
delivering  him  over  to  bonds  which  he  shirked  so 
lightly  himself  ;  but  this  was  perhaps  because  they  were 
no  longer  a  burden.  It  was  not  possible  for  him  to 
refuse  his  presence  to  the  old  man  when  he  saw  that 
it  was  his  sole  pleasure ;  he  had  come  to  share  the 
pleasure  of  these  meetings  himself.  As  the  days  which 
must  be  fewer  and  fewer  went  by  he  tried  to  come 
every  day,  and  Peace  usually  found  him  sitting  with 
her  father  when  she  reached  home  at  the  end  of  the 
afternoon.  Ray  could  get  there  first  because  his  work 
on  the  newspaper  was  of  a  more  flexible  and  desultory 
sort ;  and  he  often  brought  a  bundle  of  books  for  re 
view  with  him,  and  talked  them  over  with  Hughes,  for 
whom  he  was  a  perspective  of  the  literary  world,  with 
its  affairs  and  events.  Hughes  took  a  vivid  interest 

o i 

in  the  management  of  Ray's  department  of  Every 
Evening,  and  gave  him  advice  about  it,  charging  him 
not  to  allow  it  to  be  merely  aesthetic,  but  to  imbue  it 
with  an  ethical  quality ;  he  maintained  that  literature 
should  be  the  handmaid  oTLreforiTi ;  lie  regrettecTlhlit 
he  had  not  cast  the  material  of  The  World  Revisited  in 
the  form  of  fiction,  which  would  have  given  it  a  charm 
impossible  to  a  merely  polemical  treatise. 

"  I'm  convinced  that  if  1  had  it  in  that  shape  it 
would  readily  find  a  publisher,  and  I'm  going  to  see 
what  I  can  do  to  work  it  over  as  soon  as  I'm  about 
again." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  291 

"  I  hope  you'll  be  luckier  than  I've  been  with  fic 
tion,"  said  Ray.  "  I  don't  know  but  it  might  be  a  good 
plan  to  turn  A  Modern  fiomeo  into  a  polemical  treatise. 
We  might  change  about,  Mr.  Hughes." 

Hughes  said,  "  Why  don't  you  bring  your  story  up 
here  and  read  it  to  me  ?  ' 

"  Wouldn't  that  be  taking  an  unfair  advantage  of 
you  ?  "  Ray  asked.  "  Just  at  present  my  chief's  look 
ing  over  it,  to  see  if  it  won't  do  for  the  feuilleton  we're 
going  to  try.  He  won't  want  it ;  but  it  affords  a  little 
respite  for  you,  Mr.  Hughes,  as  long  as  he  thinks  he 
may.' 

He  knew  that  Peace  must  share  his  constraint  in 
speaking  of  his  book.  When  they  were  alone  for  a 
little  while  before  he  went  away  that  evening  he  said 
to  her,  "You  have  never  told  me  yet  that  you  forgave 
me  for  my  bad  behavior  about  my  book  the  last  time 
we  talked  about  it." 

"  Did  you  wish  me  to  tell  you  ?  "  she  asked,  gently. 
"  I  thought  I  needn't." 

"  Yes,  do,"  he  urged.    "  You  thought  I  was  wrong  ?  " 

"Yes,"  she  assented. 

"  Then  you  ought  to  say,  in  so  many  words,  '  I  for 
give  you.'  '; 

He  waited,  but  she  would  not  speak. 

"  Why  can't  you  say  that  ?  " 

She  did  not  answer,  but  after  a  while  she  said,  "  I 
think  what  I  did  was  a  good  reason  for  "  — 

"  My  being  in  the  wrong  ?  Then  why  did  you  do 
it  ?  Can't  you  tell  me  that  ?  " 


292  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE, 

"Not  —  now." 

"  Some  time  ?  " 

"  Perhaps,"  she  murmured. 

"  Then  I  may  ask  you  again  ?  " 

She  was  silent,  sitting  by  the  window  in  the  little 
back  room,  where  her  head  was  dimly  outlined  against 
the  late  twilight.  Between  the  rushing  trains  at  the  front 
they  could  hear  Mrs.  Denton  talking  to  her  father, 
joking  and  laughing.  Our  common  notion  of  tragedy 
is  that  it  alters  the  nature  of  those  involved,  as  if  it 
were  some  spiritual  chemistry  combining  the  elements 
of  character  anew.  But  it  is  merely  an  incident  of  our 
being,  and,  for  all  we  can  perceive,  is  of  no  more  vital 
effect  than  many  storms  in  the  material  world.  What 
it  does  not  destroy,  it  leaves  essentially  unchanged. 
The  light  creature  whom  its  forces  had  beaten  to  the 
earth,  rose  again  with  the  elasticity  of  light  things, 
when  it  had  passed.  She  was  meant  to  be  what  she 
was  made,  and  even  Ray,  with  the  severity  of  his  young 
morality,  and  the  paucity  of  his  experience,  perceived 
that  the  frivolity  which  shocked  him  was  comfort  and 
cheer  to  the  sick  old  man.  She  sat  with  him,  and 
babbled  and  jested ;  and  Ray  saw  with  a  generous  re 
sentment  that  she  must  always  have  been  his  favorite. 
There  was  probably  a  responsive  lightness  in  Hughes's 
own  soul  to  which  hers  brought  the  balm  of  kinship 
and  of  perfect  sympathy.  There  was  no  apparent  con 
sciousness  of  his  preference  in  the  sisters  ;  each  in  her 
way  accepted  it  as  something  just  and  fit.  Peace 
looked  after  the  small  housekeeping,  and  her  sister  had 
more  and  more  the  care  of  their  father. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  293 

Mrs.  Denton's  buoyant  temperament  served  a  better 
purpose  in  the  economy  of  sorrow  than  a  farther-sighted 
seriousness.  In  virtue  of  all  that  Ray  had  ever  read 
or  fancied  of  such  experiences,  the  deaths  that  had 
bereaved  her  ought  to  have  chastened  and  sobered  her, 
and  he  could  not  forgive  her  because  she  could  not 
wear  the  black  of  a  hushed  and  spiritless  behavior.  It 
even  shocked  him  that  Peace  did  nothing  to  restrain 

O 

her,  but  took  her  from  moment  to  moment  as  she 
showed  herself,  and  encouraged  her  cheerful  talk,  and 
smiled  at  her  jokes.  He  could  not  yet  understand  how 
the  girl's  love  was  a  solvent  of  all  questions  that  harass 
the  helpless  reason,  and  embitter  us  with  the  faults  of 
others  ;  but  from  time  to  time  he  had  a  sense  of  quality 
in  her  that  awed  him  from  all  other  sense  of  her. 
There  is  something  in  the  heart  of  man  that  puts  a 

.'woman's  charm  before  all  else,  and  that  enables  evil 
and  foolish  women  to  find  husbands,  while  good  and 
wise  women  die  unwed.  But  in  the  soul  of  incontami- 
Jiate  youth  there  is  often  a  passionate  refusal  to  accept 
this  instinct  as  the  highest.  The  ideal  of  womanhood 
is  then  something  too  pure  and  hallowed  even  for  the 
dreams  of  love.  It  was  something  like  this,  a  mystical 
reverence  or  a  fantastic  exaltation,  which  removed 

--Hay  further  from  Peace,  in  what  might  have  joined 
their  lives,  than  he  was  the  first  day  they  met,  when  he 
began  to  weave  about  her  the  reveries  which  she  had 
no  more  part  in  than  if  they  had  been  the  dreams  of 
his  sleep.  They  were  of  the  stuff  of  his  literature, 
and  like  the  innumerably  trooping,  insubstantial  fancies 


294  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

that  followed  each  other  through  his  brain  from  nothing 
in  his  experience.  When  they  ceased  to  play,  as  they 
must  after  the  little  romance  of  that  first  meeting  had 
yielded  to  acquaintance,  what  had  taken  their  place  ? 
/''At  the  end  of  the  half-year  which  had  united  them  in 
the  intimacy  of  those  strange  events  and  experiences, 
he  could  not  have  made  sure  of  anything  but  a  sort  of 
indignant  compassion  that  drew  him  near  her,  and  the 
\^  fantastic  sentiment  that  held  him  aloof.  The  resent 
ment  in  his  pity  was  toward  himself  as  much  as  her 
father  ;  when  he  saw  her  in  the  isolation  where  the  old 
man's  preference  for  her  sister  left  her,  he  blamed  him 
self  as  much  as  them. 

Peace  blamed  no  one  by  word  or  look.  He  doubted 
if  she  saw  it,  till  he  ventured  one  day  to  speak  of  her 
father's  fondness  for  her  sister,  and  then  she  answered 
that  he  would  always  rather  have  Jenny  with  him  than 
any  one  else.  Ray  returned  some  commonplaces,  not 
too  sincere,  about  the  compensation  the  care  of  her 
father  must  be  to  Mrs.  Den  ton  in  her  bereavement, 
and  Peace  answered  as  frankly  as  before  that  they  had 
got  each  other  back  again.  "  Father  didn't  want  her 
to  marry  Ansel,  and  he  didn't  care  for  the  children. 
He  couldn't  help  that ;  he  was  too  old ;  and  after  we 
were  all  shut  up  here  together  they  fretted  him." 

She  sighed  gently,  in  the  way  she  had,  and  Ray  said, 
with  the  fatuity  of  comforters,  "I  suppose  they  are 
better  off  out  of  this  world." 

"  They  were  born  into  this  world,"  she  answered. 

"  Yes,"  he  had  to  own. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  295 

He  saw  how  truly  and  deeply  she  grieved  for  the 
little  ones,  and  he  realized  without  umbrage  that  she 
mourned  their  wretched  father  too,  with  an  affection 
as  simple  and  pure.  There  were  times  when  he  thought 
how  tragical  it  would  be  for  her  to  have  cared  for 
Denton,  in  the  way  his  wife  cared  so  little  ;  and  then 
his  fancy  created  a  situation  in  whose  unreality  it  ran 
riot.  But  all  the  time  he  knew  that  he  was  feigning 
these  things,  and  that  there  was  no  more  truth  in  them 
than  in  the  supposition  which  he  indulged  at  other 
times  that  he  was  himself  in  love  with  Mrs.  Denton, 
and  always  had  been,  and  this  was  the  reason  why  he 
could  not  care  for  Peace.  It  was  the  effect  in  both 
cases  of  the  aesthetic  temperament,  which  is  as  often 
the  slave  as  the  master  of  its  reveries. 

It  was  in  Mrs.  Denton's  favor  that  she  did  not  let 
the  drift  of  their  father's  affections  away  from  Peace 
carry  her  with  them.  The  earthward  bodily  decline 
of  the  invalid  implied  a  lapse  from  the  higher  sym 
pathies  to  the  lower,  and  she  seemed  to  have  some 
vague  perception  of  this,  which  she  formulated  in  her 
own  way,  once,  when  she  wished  to  account  for  the 
sick  man's  refusal  of  some  service  from  Peace  which  he 
accepted  from  herself. 

"  He  has  more  use  for  me  here,  Peace,  because  I'm 
of  the  earth,  earthy,  but  he'll  want  you  somewhere 
else." 

The  old  man  clung  to  the  world  with  a  hope  that 
admitted  at  least  no  open  question  of  his  living.  He 
said  that  as  soon  as  the  spring  fairly  opened,  and  the 


296  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

weather  would  allow  him  to  go  out  without  taking  more 
cold,  he  should  carry  his  manuscript  about  to  the 
different  publishers,  and  offer  it  personally.  He  thought 
his  plan  carefully  out,  and  talked  it  over  with  Ray, 
whom  he  showed  that  his  own  failure  with  his  novel 
was  from  a  want  of  address  in  these  interviews.  He 
proposed  to  do  something  for  Ray's  novel  as  soon  as 
he  secured  a  publisher  for  himself,  and  again  he  bade 
him  bring  it  and  read  it  to  him.  Ray  afterwards 
realized  with  shame  that  he  would  have  consented  to 
this  if  Hughes  had  persisted.  But  the  invitation  was 
probably  a  mere  grace  of  civility  with  him,  an  effect 
!  of  the  exuberant  faith  he  had  in  his  own  success. 

As  the  season  advanced,  and  the  heat  within-doors 
increased,  they  had  to  open  the  windows,  and  then  the 
infernal  uproar  of  the  avenue  filled  the  room,  so  that 
they  could  not  hear  one  another  speak  till  the  windows 
were  closed  again.     But  the  rush  and  clank  of  the 
^f    j  elevated  trains,  the  perpetual  passage  of  the  surface 
cars,  with  the  clatter  of  their  horses'  hoofs,  and  the 
clash  of  the  air-slitting  bells,  the  grind  and  jolt  of  the 
'  heavy  trucks,  the  wild  clatter  of  express  carts  across 


: 


the  rails  or  up  and  down  the  tracks,  the  sound  of  feet 
and  voices,  the  cries  of  the  fruit-venders,  and  the  whiffs 
of   laughter  and  blasphemy  that  floated  up  from  the 
turmoil  below  like  filthy  odors,  seemed  not  so  keenly 
to  afflict  the  sick  man,  or  to  rend  his  nerves  with  the 
I    anguish  that  forced  the  others  to  shut  it  all  out,  and 
<^  rather  stifle  in  the  heat.     Yet,  in  some  sort,  he  felt  it 
too,  for  once  when  Ray  spoke  of  it,  he  said  yes,  it  was 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  297 

fl  I 

atrocious.  I"  But,"  he  added,  "I  am  glad  I  came  and 
Dlaced  nrys4lf  where  I  could  fully  realize  the  hideous- 
ness  of  a  competitive  metropolis.  All  these  abomina 
tions  of  sight  and  sound,  these  horrible  discords,  that 
offend  every  sense,  physically  express  the  spiritual 
principle  underlying  the  whole  social  framework.  If_ 
ias  been  immensely  instructive  to  me,  and  I  have  got 
some  color  of  it  into  my  book  :  not  enough,  of  cotirse, 
Dut'infinitely  mor(T  than  I  could  possibly  have  imagined. 
No  one  can  imagine  the  horror,  the  squalor,  the  cruel 
jand  senseless  turpitude  which  these  things  typify,  ex- 
jcept  in  their  presence.  I  have  merely  represented  the 
'facts  in  regard  to  them,  and  have  left  the  imagination 
'jfree  to  deal  with  the  ideal  city  as  a  contrast,  with  its 
j  peaceful  streets,  cleanly  arid  quiet,  its  stately  ranks  of 
beautiful  dwellings,  its  noble  piles  of  civic  and  religious 
architecture,  its  shaded-  and  colonnaded  avenues,  its 
parks  and  gardens,  and  all  planned  and  built,  not  from 
the  greed  and  the  fraud  of  competition,  but  from  the 
generous  and  unselfish  spirit  of  emulation,  wherein 
,Anen  join  to  achieve  the  best  instead  of  separating  to 
f  get  the  most.  Think  of  a  city  operated  by  science,  as 
every  city  might  be  now,  without  one  of  the  wretched 
animals  tamed  by  the  savage  man,  and  still  perpetuated 
by  the  savage  man  for  the  awkward  and  imperfect  uses 
<j>f  a  barbarous  society  !  A  city  without  a  horse,  where 
electricity  brought  every  man  and  everything  silently 
to  the  door.  Jenny !  Get  me  that  manuscript,  will 
you  ?  The  part  I  was  writing  on  to-day  —  in  the  desk 
—  the  middle  drawer  —  I  should  like  to  read"  — 


298  THE    WORLb    OF    CHANCE. 

Mrs.  Den  ton  dropped  her  cat  from  her  lap  and  ran 
to  get  the  manuscript.  But  when  she  brought  it  to 
her  father,  and  he  arranged  the  leaves  with  fluttering 
fingers,  he  could  not  read.  He  gasped  out  a  few 
syllables,  and  in  the  paroxysm  of  coughing  which 
began,  he  thrust  the  manuscript  toward  Ray. 

"  He  wants  you  to  take  it,"  said  Peace.  "  You  can 
take  it  home  with  you.  You  can  give  it  to  me  in  the 
morning." 

Ray  took  it,  and  stood  by,  looking  on,  not  knowing 
how  to  come  to  their  help  for  the  sick  man's  relief,  arid 
anxious  not  to  cumber  them.  When  they  had  got  him 
quiet  again,  and  Ray  had  once  more  thrown  up  the 
window,  and  let  in  the  mild  night  air  which  came  laden 
with  that  delirium  of  the  frenzied  city,  Peace  followed 
him"  into  the  little  back  room,  where  they  stood  a 
moment. 

"For  Heaven's  sake,"  he  said,  "  why  don't  you  get 
him  away  from  here,  where  he  could  be  a  little  more 
out  of  the  noise  ?  It's  enough  to  drive  a  well  man 
mad." 

"He  doesn't  feel  it  as  if  he  were  well,"  she  answered. 
"We  have  tried  to  get  him  to  let  us  bring  his  bed  out 
here.  But  he  won't.  I  think,"  she  added,  "  that  he 
believes  it  would  be  a  bad  omen  to  change." 

"  Surely,"  said  Ray,  "  a  man  like  your  father  couldn't 
care  for  that  ridiculous  superstition.  What  possible 
connection  could  his  changing  to  a  quieter  place  have 
with  his  living  or  "  — 

"  It  isn't  a  matter  of  reason  with  him.     I  can  see 


THE    WOULD    OF    CHANCE.  299 

how  he's  gone  back  to  his  early  life  in  a  great  many 
things  in  these  few  days.  He  hasn't  been  so  much 
like  himself  for  a  long  time  as  he  has  to-night." 

"What  does  the  doctor  say  ?  " 

"  He  says  to  let  him  have  his  own  way  about  it.  He 
says  that  —  the  noise  can't  make  any  difference  — 
now." 

They  were  in  the  dark  ;  but  he  knew  from  her  voice 
that  tears  were  in  her  eyes.  He  felt  for  her  hand  to 
say  good-night.  When  he  had  found  it,  he  held  it  a 
moment,  and  then  he  kissed  it.  But  no  thrill  or  glow 
of  the  heart  justified  him  in  what  he  had  done.  At 
the  best  he  could  excuse  it  as  an  impulse  of  pity. 


OF  THf 

f    UNIVERSITY   1 


XXXVI. 

THE  editor  of  Ecery  Evening  gave  Ray  his  manu 
script  back.  He  had  evidently  no  expectation  that 
Ray  could  have  any  personal  feeling  about  it,  or  could 
view  it  apart  from  the  interests  of  the  paper.  He  him 
self  betrayed  no  personal  feeling  where  the  paper  was 
concerned,  and  he  probably  could  have  conceived  of 
none  in  Ray. 

"  I  don't  think  it  will  do  for  us,"  he  said.  "  It  is  a 
good  story,  and  I  read  it  all  through,  but  I  don't  be 
lieve  it  would  succeed  as  a  serial.  What  do  you  think, 
yourself  ? " 

"I?"  said  Ray.  "How  could  I  have  an  unpreju 
diced  opinion?" 

"I  don't  see  why  you  shouldn't.  You  know  what 
we  want ;  we've  talked  it  over  enough  ;  and  you  ought 
to  know  whether  this  is  the  kind  of  thing.  Anyhow, 
it's  within  your  province  to  decide.  I  don't  think  it 
will  do,  but  if  you  think  it  will,  I'm  satisfied.  You 
must  take  the  responsibility.  I  leave  it  to  you,  and  I 
mean  business." 

Ray  thought  how  old  Kane  would  be  amused  if  he 
could  know  of  the  situation,  how  he  would  inspect  and 
comment  it  from  every  side,  and  try  to  get  novel 
phrases  for  it.  He  believed  himself  that  no  author 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  301 

had  ever'  been  quite  in  his  place  before ;  it  was  like 
something  in  Gilbert's  operas  ;  it  was  as  if  a  prisoner 
were  invited  to  try  himself  and  pronounce  his  own 
penalty.  His  chief  seemed  to  see  no  joke  in  the  affair ; 
he  remained  soberly  and  somewhat  severely  waiting  for 
Ray's  decision. 

"  I'm  afraid  you're  right,"  said  Ray.  "  I  don't 
think  it  would  do  for  Every  Evening.  Even  if  it 
would,  I  should  doubt  the  taste  of  working  in  some 
thing  of  my  own  on  the  reader  at  the  beginning." 

"  I  shouldn't  care  for  that,"  said  the  chief,  "  if  it 
were  the  thing." 

Ray  winced,  but  the  chief  did  not  see  it.  Now,  as 
always,  it  was  merely  and  simply  a  question  of  the 
paper.  He  added  carelessly  : 

"  I  should  think  such  a  story  as  that  would  succeed 
as  a  book." 

"  I  wish  you  would  get  some  publisher  to  think  so." 

The  chief  had  nothing  to  say  to  that.  He  opened 
his  desk  and  began  to  write. 

In  spite  of  the  rejected  manuscript  lying  on  the 
table  before  him,  Ray  made  out  a  very  fair  day's  work 
himself,  and  then  he  took  it  up  town  with  him.  He 
did  not  go  at  once  to  his  hotel,  but  pushed  on  as  far 
as  Chapley's,  where  he  hoped  to  see  Peace  before  she 
went  home,  arid  ask  how  her  father  was  getting  on ; 
he  had  not  visited  Hughes  for  several  weeks  ;  he  made 
himself  this  excuse.  What  he  really  wished  was  to 
confront  the  girl  and  divine  her  thoughts  concerning 
himself.  He  must  do  that,  now ;  but  if  it  were  not 


302  THE    AVORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

for  the  cruelty  of  forsaking  the  old  man,  it  might  be 
the  kindest  and  best  thing  never  to  go  near  any  of 
them  again. 

He  had  the  temporary  relief  of  finding  her  gone 
home  when  he  reached  Chapley's.  Mr.  Brandreth  was 
there,  and  he  welcomed  Ray  with  something  more  than 
his  usual  cordiality. 

"  Look  here,"  he  said,  shutting  the  door  of  his  little 
room.  "  Have  you  got  that  story  of  yours  where  you 
could  put  your  hand  on  it  easily  ?  " 

"  I  can  put  my  hand  on  it  instantly,"  said  Ray,  and 
he  touched  it. 

"  Oh !  "  Mr.  Brandreth  returned,  a  little  daunted. 
'•  I  didn't  know  you  carried  it  around  with  you." 

"I  don't  usually  —  or  only  when  I've  got  it  from 
some  publisher  who  doesn't  want  it." 

"  I  thought  it  had  been  the  rounds,"  said  Mr.  Bran 
dreth,  still  uneasily. 

"  Oh,  it's  an  editor,  this  time.  It's  just  been  offered 
to  me  for  serial  use  in  Every  Evening,  and  I've  de 
clined  it." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  Mr.  Brandreth  smiled  in 
mystification. 

"  Exactly  what  I  say."  Ray  explained  the  affair  as 
it  had  occurred.  "  It  makes  me  feel  like  Brutus  and 
the  son  of  Brutus  rolled  into  one.  I'm  going  round  to 
old  Kane,  to  give  the  facts  away  to  him.  I  think  he'll 
enjoy  them." 

"  Well !  Hold  on  !  What  did  the  chief  say  about 
it?" 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  303 

"  Oh,  he  liked  it.  Everybody  likes  it,  but  nobody 
wants  it.  He  said  he  thought  it  would  succeed  as  a 
book.  The  editors  all  think  that.  The  publishers 
think  it  would  succeed  as  a  serial." 

Ray  carried  it  off  buoyantly,  and  enjoyed  the  sort  of 
daze  Mr.  Brandreth  was  in. 

"  See  here,"  said  the  publisher,  "  I  want  you  to 
leave  that  manuscript  with  me." 

"  Again  ?  " 

"  Yes.     I've  never  read  it  myself  yet,  you  know." 

"  Take  it  and  be  happy !  "  Ray  bestowed  it  upon 
him  with  dramatic  effusion. 

"  No,  seriously  !  "  said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "  I  want  to 
talk  with  you.  Sit  down,  won't  you  ?  You  know  the 
first  time  you  were  in  here,  I  told  you  I  was  anxious 
to  get  Chapley  &  Co.  in  line  as  a  publishing  house 
again  ;  I  didn't  like  the  way  we  were  dropping  out 
and  turning  into  mere  jobbers.  You  remember." 

Ray  nodded. 

"  Well,  sir,  I've  never  lost  sight  of  that  idea,  and 
I've  been  keeping  one  eye  out  for  a  good  novel,  to 
start  with,  ever  since.  I  haven't  found  it,  I  don't 
mind  telling  you.  You  see,  all  the  established  reputa 
tions  are  in  the  hands  of  other  publishers,  and  you 
can't  get  them  away  without  paying  ridiculous  money, 
and  violating  the  comity  of  the  trade  at  the  same 
time.  If  we  are  to  start  new,  we  must  start  with  a 
new  man." 

"  I  don't  know  whether  I'm  a  new  man  or  not," 

said  Ray,  u  if  you're  working  up  to  me.     Sometimes  I 
20 


304  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

feel  like  a  pretty  old  one.  I  think  I  jctjnie  to  New 
York  about  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  Bat 
A  Modern  Romeo  is  as  fresh  as  ever.  It  has  the  dew 
of  the  morning  on  it  still  —  rubbed  off  in  spots  by  the 
nose  of  the  professional  smeller." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  "  it's  new  enough  for 
all  practical  purposes.  I  want  you  to  let  me  take  it 
home  with  me." 

"  Which  of  the  leading  orchestras  would  you  like  to 
have  accompany  you  to  your  door  ?  "  asked  Ray. 

"  No,  no  !  Don't  expect  too  much  !  "  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  entreated. 

44 1  don't  expect  anything,"  Ray  protested. 

"Well,  that's  right  —  that's  the  only  business  basis. 
But  if  it  should  happen  to  be  the  thing,  I  don't  believe 
you'd  be  personally  any  happier  about  it  than  I 
should." 

44  Oh,  thank  you  !  " 

"  I'm  not  a  fatalist "  — 

"  But  it  would  look  a  good  deal  like  fatalism." 

"Yes,  it  would.  It  would  look  as  if  it  were  really 
intended  to  be,  if  it  came  back  to  us  now,  after  it  had 
been  round  to  everybody  else." 

"  Yes  ;  but  if  it  was  fated  from  the  beginning,  I 
don't  see  why  you  didn't  take  it  in  the  beginning. 
I  should  rather  wonder  what  all  the  bother  had  been 
for." 

"  You  might  say  that,"  Mr.  Brandreth  admitted. 

Ray  went  off  on  the  wave  of  potential  prosperity, 
and  got  Kane  to  come  out  and  dine  with  him.  They 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  305 

decided  upon  Martin's,  where  the  dinner  cost  twice  as 
much  as  at  Ray's  hotel,  and  had  more  the  air  of  being 
a  fine  dinner ;  and  they  got  a  table  in  the  corner,  arid 
Ray  ordered  a  bottle  of  champagne. 

"  Yes,"  said  Kane,  "  that  is  the  right  drink  for  a 
man  who  wishes  to  spend  his  money  before  he  has  got 
it.  It's  the  true  gambler's  beverage." 

"You  needn't  drink  it,"  said  Ray.  "You  shall 
have  the  v in  ordinaire  that's  included  in  the  price  of 
the  dinner." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mind  a  glass  of  champagne  now  and 
then,  after  I've  brought  my  host  under  condemnation 
for  ordering  it,"  said  Kane. 

"  And  I  want  to  let  my  heart  out  to-night,"  Ray 
pursued.  "  I  may  not  have  the  chance  to-morrow. 
Besides,  as  to  the  gambling,  it  isn't  I  betting  on  my 
book;  it's  Brandreth.  I  don't  understand  yet  why  he 
wants  to  do  it.  To  be  sure,  it  isn't  a  great  risk  he's 
taking." 

"  I  rather  think  he  has  to  take  some  risks  just  now," 
said  Kane,  significantly.  He  lowered  his  soft  voice  an 
octave  as  he  went  on.  "  I'm  afraid  tha^-  poor  Henry, 
in  his  pursuit  of  personal  perfectability,  has  let  things 
get  rather  behindhand  in  his  busmessT^  1  dbiTt  blame 
him  —  you  know  I  never  blame  people — for  there  is 
always  a  question  as  to  which  is  the  cause  and  which 
is  the  effect  in  such  matters.  My  dear  old  friend  may 
have  begun  to  let  his  business  go  to  the  bad  because 
he  had  got  interested  in  his  soul,  or  he  may  have 
turned  to  his  soul  for  refuge  because  he  knew  his 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

business  had  begun  to  go  to  the  bad.  At  any  rate,  he 
seems  to  have  found  th&-Jisiial_difficulty  "m  .serving 
God  and  Mammon  ;  only,  in  this  caseMammon  has 
got  the  worst  of  it,  for  once :  I  suppose  one  ought  to 
be  glad  of  that.  But  the  fact  is  that  Henry  has  lost 
heart  in  business;  he  doesn't  respect  business;  he 
has  a  bad  conscience ;  he  wants  to  be  out  of  it.  I 
had  a  long  talk  with  him  before  he  went  into  the 
country,  and  I  couldn't  help  pitying  him.  I  don't 
think  his  wife  and  daughter  even  will  ever  get  him 
back  to  New  York.  He  knows  it's  rather  selfish  to 
condemn  them  to  the  dulness  of  a  country  life,  and 
that  it's  rather  selfish  to  leave  young  Brandreth  to 
take  the  brunt  of  affairs  here  alone.  But  what  are 
you  to  do  in  a  world  like  this,  where  a  man  can't  get 
rid  of  one  bad  conscience  without  laying  in  another  ?  " 

In  his  pleasure  with  his  paradox  Kane  suffered  Ray 
to  fill  up  his  glass  a  second  time.  Then  he  looked 
dissatisfied,  and  Ray  divined  the  cause.  "  Did  you 
word  that  quite  to  your  mind  ?  " 

"  Xo,  I  didn't.  It's  too  diffuse.  Suppose  we  say 
that  in  our  conditions  no  man  can  do  right  without 
doing  harm  ?  " 

"  That's  more  succinct,"  said  Ray.  "Is  it  known 
at  all  that  they're  in  difficulties  ?  " 

Kane  smoothly  ignored  the  question.  "  I  fancy  that 
the  wrong  is  in  Henry's  desire  to  cut  himself  loose 
from  the  ties  that  bind  us  all  together  here.  Poor 
David  has  the  right  of  that.  We  must  stand  or  fall 
together  in  the  pass  we've  come  to  ;  and  we  cannot 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  307 

helpfully  eschew  the  world  except  by  remaining  in  it." 
He  took  up  Ray's  question  after  a  moment's  pause. 
"No,  it  isn't  known  that  they're  in  difficulties,  and  I 
don't  say  that  it's  so.  Their  affairs  have  simply  been 
allowed  to  run  down,  and  Henry  has  left  Brandreth  to 
gather  them  up  single-handed.  I  don't  know  that 
Brandreth  will  complain.  It  leaves  him  unhampered, 
even  if  he  can  do  nothing  with  his  hands  but  clutch  at 
straws." . 

"  Such  straws  as  the  Modern  Romeo  ?  "  Ray  asked. 
"It  seems  to  me  that  /have  a  case  of  conscience  here. 
Is  it  right  for  me  to  let  Mr.  Brandreth  bet  his  money 
on  my  book  when  there  are  so  many  chances  of  his 
losing?" 

"  Let  us  hope  he  won't  finally  bet,"  Kane  suggested, 
and  he  smiled  at  the  refusal  which  instantly  came  into 
Ray's  eyes.  "  But  if  he  does,  we  must  leave  the  end 
with  God.  People,"  he  mused  on,  "  used  to  leave  the 
end  with  God  a  great  deal  oftener  than  they  do  now. 
I  remember  that  I  did,  myself,  once.  It  was  easier.  I 
think  I  will  go  back  to  it.  There  is  something  very 
curious  in  our  relation  to  the  divine.  God  is  where 
we  believe  He  is,  and  He  is  a  daily  Providence  or  not, 
as  we  choose.  People  used  to  see  His  hand  in  a  cor 
ner,  or  a  deal,  which  prospered  them,  though  it  ruined 
others.  They  may  be  ashamed  to  do  that  now.  But 
we  might  get  back  to  faith  by  taking  a  wider  sweep 
and  seeing  God  in  our  personal  disadvantages  —  finding 
Him  not  only  in  luck  but  in  bad  luck.  Chance  may 
be  a  larger  law,  with  an  orbit  far  transcending  the 


308  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

range  of  the  little  statutes  by  which  fire  always  burns, 
and  water  always  finds  its  level." 

"  That  is  a  better  Hard  Saying  than  the  other," 
Ray  mocked.  "'!'  faith  an  excellent  song.'  Have 
some  more  champagne.  Now  go  on  ;  but  let  us  talk  of 
A  Modern  Romeo" 

11  We  will  drink  to  it,"  said  Kane,  with  an  air  of 
piety. 


XXXVII. 

"WELL,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth  when  he  found 
Ray  waiting  for  him  in  his  little  room  the  next  morn 
ing,  "  I  haven't  slept  a  wink  all  night." 

Ray  had  not  slept  a  wink  himself,  and  he  had  not 
been  able  to  keep  away  from  Chapley's  in  his  fear  and 
his  hope  concerning  his  book.  He  hoped  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  might  have  looked  at  it ;  he  feared  he  had  not. 
His  heart  began  to  go  down,  but  he  paused  in  his 
despair  at  the  smiles  that  Mr.  Brandreth  broke  into. 

"  It  was  that  book  of  yours.  I  thought  I  would 
just  dip  into  it  after  dinner,  and  try  a  chapter  or  two 
on  Mrs.  Brandreth ;  but  I  read  on  till  eleven  o'clock, 
and  then  she  went  to  bed,  and  I  kept  at  it  till  I  finished 
it,  about  three  this  morning.  Then  the  baby  took  up 
the  strain  for  about  half  an  hour  and  finished  me." 

Ray  did  not  know  what  to  say.  He  gasped  out, 
"  I'm  proud  to  have  been  associated  with  young  Mr. 
Brandreth  in  destroying  his  father's  rest." 

The  publisher  did  not  heed  this  poor  attempt  at  non 
chalance.  "  I  left  the  manuscript  for  Mrs.  Brandreth 
—  she  called  me  back  to  make  sure,  before  I  got  out 
of  doors  —  and  if  she  likes  it  as  well  to  the  end  — 
But  I  know  she  will !  She  likes  you,  Ray." 


310  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Does  she  ?  "  Ray  faintly  questioned  back. 

"  Yes ;  she  thinks  you're  all  kinds  of  a  nice  fellow, 
and  that  you've  been  rather  sacrificed  in  some  ways. 
She  thinks  you  behaved  splendidly  in  that  Denton 
business." 

Ray  remained  mutely  astonished  at  the  flattering 
opinions  of  Mrs.  Brandreth  ;  he  had  suspected  them  so 
little.  Her  husband  went  on,  smiling: 

"  She  wasn't  long  making  out  the  original  of  your 
hero."  Ray  blushed  consciously,  but  made  no  at 
tempt  to  disown  the  self-portraiture.  "Of  course," 
said  Mr.  Brandreth,  "  we're  all  in  the  dark  about  the 
heroine.  But  Mrs.  Brandreth  doesn't  care  so  much 
for  her." 

Now  that  he  was  launched  upon  the  characters  of 
the  story,  Mr.  Brandreth  discussed  them  all,  and  went 
over  the  incidents  with  the  author,  whose  brain  reeled 
with  the  ecstacy  of  beholding  them  objectively  in  the 
flattering  light  of  another's  appreciation. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  at  last,  when  Ray 
found  strength  to  rise  from  this  debauch  of  praise, 
"  you'll  hear  from  me,  now,  very  soon.  I've  made  up 
my  mind  about  the  story,  and  unless  Mrs.  Brandreth 
should  hate  it  very  much  before  she  gets  through  with 
it —  Curious  about  women,  isn't  it,  how  they  always 
take  the  personal  view  ?  I  believe  the  main  reason 
why  my  wife  dislikes  your  heroine  is  because  she  got 
her  mixed  up  with  the  girl  that  took  the  part  of 
Juliet  away  from  her  in  our  out-door  theatricals.  I 
tell  her  that  you  and  I  are  not  only  the  two  Percys, 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  311 

we're  the  two  Romeos,  too.  She  thinks  your  heroine 
is  rather  weak ;  of  course  you  meant  her  to  be  so." 

Ray  had  not,  but  he  said  that  he  had,  and  he  made 
a  noisy  pretence  of  thinking  the  two  Romeos  a  prodig 
ious  joke.  His  complaisance  brought  its  punishment. 

"Oh!  "  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  "I  must  tell  you  a  sin 
gular  thing  that  happened.  Just  as  I  got  to  that  place 
where  he  shoots  himself,  you  know,  and  she  starts  up 
out  of  her  hypnotic  trance,  our  baby  gave  a  frightful 
scream,  and  Mrs.  Brandreth  woke  and  thought  the 
house  was  on  fire.  I  suppose  the  little  fellow  had  a 
bad  dream ;  it's  strange  what  dreams  babies  do  have ! 
But  wasn't  it  odd,  happening  when  I  was  wrought  up 
so?  Looks  like  telepathy,  doesn't  it?  Of  course  my 
mind's  always  on  the  child.  By-the-way,  if  this  thing 
goes,  you  must  try  a  telepathic  story.  It  hasn't  been 
done  yet." 

"  Magnificent !  "  said  Ray.     "  I'll  do  it !  " 

They  got  away  from  each  other,  and  Ray  went 
down  to  his  work  at  the  Every  Evening  office.  He 
enslaved  himself  to  it  by  an  effort  twice  as  costly  as 
that  of  writing  when  lie  was  in  the  deepest  and  dark 
est  of  his  despair;  his  hope  danced  before  him,  and 
there  was  a  tumult  in  his  pulses  which  he  could  quiet 
a  little  only  by  convincing  himself  that  as  yet  he 
had  no  promise  from  Mr.  Brandreth,  and  that  if  the 
baby  had  given  Mrs.  Brandreth  a  bad  day,  it  was 
quite  within  the  range  of  possibility  that  the  publisher 
might,  after  all,  have  perfectly  good  reasons  for  reject 
ing  his  book.  He  insisted  with  himself  upon  this 


312  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

view  of  the  case  ;  it  was  the  only  one  that  he  could 
steady  his  nerves  with  ;  and  besides,  he  somehow  felt 
that  if  he  could  feign  it  strenuously  enough,  the  fates 
would  be  propitiated,  and  the  reverse  would  happen. 

It  is  uncertain  whether  it  was  his  pretence  that  pro 
duced  the  result  intended,  but  in  the  evening  Mr. 
Brandreth  came  down  to  Ray's  hotel  to  say  that  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  to  take  the  book. 

"  We  talked  it  over  at  dinner,  and  my  wife  made  me 
come  right  down  and  tell  you.  She  said  you  had  been 
kept  in  suspense  long  enough,  and  she  wasn't  going  to 
let  you  go  overnight.  It's  the  first  book  we've  ever 
taken,  and  I  guess  she  feels  a  little  romantic  about  the 
new  departure.  By-the-way,  we  found  out  what  ailed 
the  baby.  It  was  a  pin  that  had  got  loose,  and  stuck 
up  through  the  sheet  in  his  crib.  You  can't  trust 
those  nurses  a  moment.  But  I  believe  that  telepathic 
idea  is  a  good  one." 

"Yes,  yes  ;  it  is,"  said  Ray.  Now  that  the  certainty 
of  acceptance  had  come,  he  was  sobered  by  it,  and  he 
could  not  rejoice  openly,  though  he  was  afraid  he  was 
disappointing  Mr.  Brandreth.  He  could  only  say, 
"It's  awfully  kind  of  Mrs.  Brandreth  to  think  of  me." 

"  That's  her  way,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  and  he 
added  briskly,  "  Well,  now,  let's  come  down  to  busi 
ness.  How  do  you  want  to  publish?  Want  to  make 
your  own  plates  ?  " 

"  No,"  Ray  faltered  ;  "  I  can't  afford  to  do  that ;  I 
had  one  such  offer  "  — 

"  I  supposed  you  wouldn't,"  Mr.  Brandreth  cut  in, 


THE    AVORLD    OF    CHANCE.  313 

but  I  thought  I'd  ask.  Well,  then,  we'll  make  the 
plates  ourselves,  and  we'll  pay  you  ten  per  cent,  on  the 
retail  price  of  the  book.  That  is  the  classic  arrange 
ment  with  authors,  and  I  think  it's  fair."  When  he 
said  this  he  swallowed,  as  if  there  wrere  something  in 
his  throat,  and  added,  "  Up  to  a  certain  point.  And 
as  we  take  all  the  risk,  I  think  we  ought  to  have  — 
You  see,  on  one  side  it's  a  perfect  lottery,  and  on  the 
other  side  it's  a  dead  certainty.  You  can't  count  on 
the  public,  but  you  can  count  on  the  landlord,  the 
salesman,  the  bookkeeper,  the  printer,  arid  the  paper- 
maker.  We're  at  all  the  expense  —  rent,  clerk-hire, 
plates,  printing,  binding,  and  advertising,  and  the 
author  takes  no  risk  whatever." 

It  occurred  to  Ray  afterwards  that  an  author  took 
the  risk  of  losing  his  labor  if  his  book  failed ;  but  the 
public  estimates  the  artist's  time  at  the  same  pecuni 
ary  value  as  the  sitting  hen's,  and  the  artist  insensibly 
accepts  the  estimate.  Ray  did  not  think  of  his  point 
in  season  to  urge  it,  but  it  would  hardly  have  availed 
if  he  had.  He  was  tremulously  eager  to  close  with 
Mr.  Brandreth  on  any  terms,  and  after  they  had 
agreed,  he  was  afraid  he  had  taken  advantage  of  him. 

When  the  thing  was  done  it  was  like  everything 
else.  He  had  dwelt  so  long  and  intensely  upon  it  in  a 
thousand  reveries  that  he  had  perhaps  exhausted  his 
possibilities  of  emotion  concerning  it.  At  any  rate  he 
found  himself  curiously  cold ;  he  wrote  to  his  father 
about  it,  and  he  wrote  to  Sanderson,  who  would  be 
sure  to  make  a  paragraph  for  the  Echo,  and  unless 


314  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Hanks  Brothers  killed  his  paragraph,  would  electrify 
Midland  with  the  news.  Ray  forecast  the  matter  and 
the  manner  of  the  paragraph,  but  it  did  not  excite 
him. 

"  What  is  the  trouble  with  me  ?  "  he  asked  Kane, 
whom  he  hastened  to  tell  his  news.  "  I  ought  to  be 
in  a  transport ;  I'm  not  in  anything  of  the  kind." 

"Ah!  That  is  very  interesting.  No  doubt  you'll 
come  to  it.  I  had  a  friend  once  who  was  accepted  in 
marriage  by  the  object  of  his  affections.  His  first 
state  was  apathy,  mixed,  as  nearly  as  I  could  under 
stand,  with  dismay.  He  became  more  enthusiastic 
later  on,  and  lived  ever  after  in  the  belief  that  he  was 
one  of  the  most  fortunate  of  men.  But  I  think  we 
are  the  victims  of  conventional  acceptations  in  regard 
to  most  of  the  great  affairs  of  life.  We  are  taught 
that  we  shall  feel  so  and  so  about  such  and  such  things : 
about  success  in  love  or  in  literature ;  about  the  birth 
of  our  first-born  ;  about  death.  But  probably  no  man 
feels  as  he  expected  to  feel  about  these  things.  He 
finds  them  of  exactly  the  same  quality  as  all  other 
experiences  ;  there  may  be  a  little  more  or  a  little  less 
about  them,  but  there  isn't  any  essential  difference. 
Perhaps  when  we  come  to  die  ourselves,  it  will  be  as 
simply  and  naturally  as  —  as  "  — 

"  As  having  a  book  accepted  by  a  publisher,"  Ray 
suggested. 

"  Exactly ! "  said  Kane,  and  he  breathed  out  his 
deep,  soft  laugh. 

"  Well,  you  needn't  go  on.    I'm  sufficiently  accounted 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  315 

for."  Ray  rose,  and  Kane  asked  him  what  his  hurry 
was,  and  where  he  was  going. 

"  I'm  going  up  to  tell  the  Hugheses." 

"  Ah !  then  I  won't  offer  to  go  with  you,"  said 
Kane.  "  I  approve  of  your  constancy,  but  I  have  my 
own  philosophy  of  such  things.  I  think  David  w^ould 
have  done  much  better  to  stay  where  he  was  ;  I  do  not 
wish  to  punish  him  for  coming  to  meet  the  world,  and 
reform  it  on  its  own  ground  ;  but  I  could  have  told  him 
he  would  get  beaten.  He  is  a  thinker,  or  a  dreamer, 
if  you  please,  and  in  his  community  he  had  just  the 
right  sort  of  distance.  He  could  pose  the  world  just 
as  he  wished,  and  turn  it  in  this  light  and  in  that.  But 
here  he  sees  the  exceptions  to  his  rules,  and  when  I 
am  with  him  I  find  myself  the  prey  of  a  desire  to 
dwell  on  the  exceptions,  and  I  know  that  I  afflict  him. 
I  always  did,  and  I  feel  it  the  part  of  humanity  to 
keep  away  from  him.  I  am  glad  that  I  do,  for  I  dis 
like  very  much  being  with  sick  people.  Of  course  I 
shall  go  as  often  as  decency  requires.  For  Decency," 
Kane  concluded,  with  the  effect  of  producing  a  Hard 
Saying,  u  transcends  Humanity.  So  many  reformers 
forget  that,"Jie  added. 

The  days  were  now  getting  so  long  that  they  had 
just  lighted  the  lamps  in  Hughes's  room  when  Ray 
came  in,  a  little  after  seven.  He  had  a  few  words 
with  Peace  in  the  family  room  first,  and  she  told  him 
that  her  father  had  passed  a  bad  day,  and  she  did  not 
know  whether  he  was  asleep  or  not. 

"  Then  I'll  go  away  again,"  said  Ray, 


316  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  No,  no ;  if  lie  is  awake,  he  will  like  to  see  you. 
He  always  does.  And  now  he  can't  see  you  much 
oftener," 

"  Oh,  Peace !     Do  you  really  think  so  ?  " 

"  The  doctor  says  so.  There  is  no  hope  any  more." 
There  was  no  faltering  in  her  voice,  and  its  steadiness 
strengthened  Ray,  standing  so  close  to  one  who  stood 
so  close  to  death. 

"  Does  he  —  your  father  —  know  ?  " 

"  I  can't  tell.  He  is  always  so  hopeful.  And  Jenny 
won't  hear  of  giving  up.  She  is  with  him  more  than 
I  am,  and  she  says  he  has  a  great  deal  of  strength  yet. 
He  can  still  w^ork  at  his  book  a  little.  He  has  every 
part  of  it  in  mind  so  clearly  that  he  can  tell  her  wrhat 
to  do  when  he  has  the  strength  to  speak.  The  worst 
is,  when  his  voice  fails  him — he  gets  impatient. 
That  was  what  brought  on  his  hemorrhage  to-day." 

"  Peace !  I  am  ashamed  to  think  why  I  came  to 
night.  But  I  hoped  it  might  interest  him." 

"About  your  book?  Oh  yes.  Mr.  Brandreth  spoke 
to  me  about  it.  I  thought  you  would  like  to  tell 
him." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Ray.  He  was  silent  for  a 
moment.  She  stood  against  the  pale  light  of  one  of 
the  windows,  a  shadowy  outline,  and  he  felt  as  if  they 
were  two  translated  spirits  meeting  there  exterior  to 
the  world  and  all  its  interests  ;  he  made  a  mental  note 
of  his  impression  for  use  some  time.  But  now  he 
said:  "I  thought  I  should  like  to  tell  him,  too.  But 
after  all,  I'm  not  so  sure.  I'm  not  like  you,  Peace. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  317 

And  I  suppose  I'm  punished  for  my  egotism  in  the 
very  hour  of  my  triumph.  It  isn't  like  a  triumph ; 
it's  like  —  nothing.  I've  looked  forward  to  this  so 
long  —  I've  counted  on  it  so  much  —  I've  expected  it 
to  be  like  having  the  world  in  my  hand.  But  if  I 
shut  my  hand,  it's  empty." 

He  knew  that  he  was  appealing  to  her  for  comfort, 
and  he  expected  her  to  respond  as  she  did. 

"  That's  because  you  don't  realize  it  yet.  When 
you  do,  it  will  seem  the  great  thing  that  it  is." 

"  Do  you  think  it's  a  great  thing  ?  " 

"  As  great  as  any  success  can  be." 

"  Do  you  think  it  will  succeed  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Brandreth  thinks  it  will.  He's  very  hopeful 
about  it." 

"  Sometimes  I  wish  it  would  fail.  I  don't  believe  it 
deserves  to  succeed.  I'm  ashamed  of  it  in  places. 
Have  I  any  right  to  let  him  foist  it  on  the  public  if  I 
don't  perfectly  respect  it?  You  wouldn't  if  it  were 
yours." 

He  wished  her  to  deny  that  it  was  bad  in  any  part, 
but  she  did  not.  She  merely  said  :  "I  suppose  that's 
the  way  our  work  always  seems  to  us  when  it's  done. 
There  must  be  a  time  when  we  ought  to  leave  what 
we've  done  to  others  ;  it's  for  them,  not  for  ourselves  ; 
why  shouldn't  they  judge  it  ?  " 

"  Yes ;  that  is  true !  How  generous  you  are  !  How 
can  you  endure  to  talk  to  me  of  my  book  ?  But  I 
suppose  you  think  that  if  I  can  stand  it,  you  can." 

"  I  will  go  in,  now,"  said  Peace,  ignoring  the  drift 


318  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

of  his  words,  "  and  see  if  father  is  awake."     She  re 
turned  in  a  moment,  and  murmured  softly,  "  Come  !  " 

"Here  is  Mr.  Ray,  father,"  said  Mrs.  Denton.  She 
had  to  lift  her  voice  to  make  the  sick  man  hear,  for 
the  window  was  open,  and  the  maniacal  clamor  of  the 
street  flooded  the  chamber.  Hughes  lay  at  his  thin 
full-length  in  his  bed,  like  one  already  dead. 

He  stirred  a  little  at  the  sound  of  his  daughter's 
voice,  and  when  he  had  taken  in  the  fact  of  Ray's 
presence,  he  signed  to  her  to  shut  the  window.  The 
smells  of  the  street,  and  the  sick,  hot  whiffs  from  the 
passing  trains  were  excluded;  the  powerful  odors  of 
the  useless  drugs  burdened  the  air  ;  by  the  light  of  the 
lamp  shaded  from  Hughes's  eyes  Ray  could  see  the 
red  blotches  on  his  sheet  and  pillow. 

He  no  longer  spoke,  but  he  could  write  with  a  pencil 
on  the  little  memorandum-block  which  lay  on  the 
stand  by  his  bed.  When  Peace  said,  "  Father,  Mr. 
Ray  has  come  to  tell  you  that  his  book  has  been  ac 
cepted  ;  Chapley  &  Co.  are  going  to  publish  it,"  the 
old  man's  face  lighted  up.  He  waved  his  hand 
toward  the  stand,  and  Mrs.  Denton  put  the  block  and 
pencil  in  it,  and  held  the  lamp  for  him  to  see. 

Ray  took  the  block,  and  read,  faintly  scribbled  on 
it :  "  Good !  You  must  get  them  to  take  my  World 
Revisited.'" 

The  sick  man  smiled  as  Ray  turned  his  eyes  toward 
him  from  the  paper. 

."What  is  it?"  demanded  Mrs.  Denton,  after  a 
moment.  "Some  secret?  What  is  it,  father? "she 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  319 

pursued,  with  the  lightness  that  evidently  pleased  him, 
for  he  smiled  again,  and  an  inner  light  shone  through 
his  glassy  eyes.  "  Tell  us,  Mr.  Ray  !  " 

Hughes  shook  his  head  weakly,  still  smiling,  and 
Hay  put  the  leaf  in  his  pocket.  Then  he  took  up  the 
old  man's  long  hand  where  it  lay  inert  on  the  bed. 

"  I  will  do  my  very  best,  Mr.  Hughes.     I  will  do 
everything  that  I  possibly  can." 
21 


XXXVIII. 

A  PURPOSE  had  instantly  formed  itself  in  Ray's 
mind  which  he  instantly  set  himself  to  carry  out.  It 
was  none  the  less  a  burden  because  he  tried  to  think  it 
heroic  and  knew  it  to  be  fantastic ;  and  it  was  in  a 
mood  of  equally  blended  devotion  and  resentment  that 
he  disciplined  himself  to  fulfil  it.  It  was  shocking  to 
criticise  the  dying  man's  prayer  from  any  such  point 
of  view,  but  he  could  not  help  doing  so,  and  censuring 
it  for  a  want  of  taste,  for  a  want  of  consideration. 
He  did  not  account  for  the  hope  of  good  to  the  world 
which  Hughes  must  have  had  in  urging  him  to  be 
friend  his  book;  he  could  only  regard  it  as  a  piece  of 
literature,  and  judge  the  author's  motives  by  his  own, 
which  he  was  fully  aware  were  primarily  selfish. 

But  he  went  direct  to  Mr.  Brandreth  and  laid  the 
matter  before  him. 

"  Now  I'm  going  to  suggest  something,"  he  hurried 
on,  "  wThich  may  strike  you  as  ridiculous,  but  I'm  thor 
oughly  in  earnest  about  it.  I've  read  Mr.  Hughes's 
book,  first  and  last,  all  through,  and  it's  good  litera 
ture,  I  can  assure  you  of  that.  I  don't  know  about 
the  principles  in  it,  but  I  know  it's  very  original  and 
from  a  perfectly  new  stand-point,  and  I  believe  it  would 
make  a  great  hit." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  321 

Mr.  Brandreth  listened,  evidently  shaken.  "I 
couldn't  do  it,  now.  I'm  making  a  venture  with  your 
book." 

"  That's  just  what  I'm  coming  to.  Don't  make 
my  frnnk ;  makft  ifr\vifh  his!  I 


solemnly  believe  that  his  would  be  the  safest  venture     \    ^^  ^ 
of  the  two ;  I  believe  it  would  stand  two  chances  to 
one  of  mine." 

"Well,  I'll  look  at  it  for  the  fall." 

"  It  will  be  too  late,  then,  as  far  as  Hughes  is  con-  *w 
cerned.  It's  now  or  never,  with  him !  You  want  to 
come  out  with  a  book  that  will  draw  attention  to  your 
house,  as  well  as  succeed.  I  believe  that  Hughes's 
book  will  be  an  immense  success.  It  has  a  taking 
name,  and  it's  a  novel  and  taking  conception.  It'll 
make  no  end  of  talk." 

"It's  too  late,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth.  "I  couldn't 
take  such  a  book  as  that  without  passing  it  round 
among  all  our  readers,  and  you  know  what  that 
means.  Besides,  I've  begun  to  make  my  plans  for 
getting  out  your  book  at  once.  There  isn't  any  time 
to  lose.  I've  sent  out  a  lot  of  literary  notes,  and 
you'll  see  them  in  every  leading  paper  to-morrow 
morning.  I'll  have  Mr.  Hughes's  book  faithfully  ex 
amined,  and  if  I  can  see  my  way  to  it  —  I  tell  you,  I 
believe  I  shall  make  a  success  of  the  Modern  Romeo. 
I  like  the  title  better  and  better.  I  think  you'll  be 
pleased  with  the  wray  I've  primed  the  press.  I've  tried 
to  avoid  all  vulgar  claptrap,  and  yet  I  believe  I've 
contrived  to  pique  the  public  curiosity." 


322  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

He  went  on  to  tell  Ray  some  of  the  things  he  had 
said  in  his  paragraphs,  and  Ray  listened  with  that 
mingled  shame  and  pleasure  which  the  artist  must  feel 
Whenever  the  commercial  side  of  his  life  preseTitsttself. 

"  I  kept  "Hiss  Hughes  prettjTlate  this^afFerfioon, 
working  the  things  into  shape,  so  as  to  get  them  to  the 
papers  at  once.  I  just  give  her  the  main  points,  and 
she  has  such  a  neat  touch." 

Ray  left  his  publisher  with  a  light  heart,  and  a 
pious  sense  of  the  divine  favor.  He  had  conceived  of 
a  difficult  duty,  and  he  had  discharged  it  with  un 
flinching  courage.  He  had  kept  his  word  to  Hughes  ; 
he  had  done  all  that  he  could  for  him,  even  to  offering 
his  own  chance  of  fame  and  fortune  a  sacrifice  to  him. 
Now  he  could  do  no  more,  and  if  he  could  not  help 
being  glad  that  the  sacrifice  had  not  been  accepted  of 
him,  he  was  not  to  be  blamed.  He  was  very  much  to 
be  praised,  and  he  rewarded  himself  with  a  full  recog 
nition  of  his  virtue ;  he  imagined  some  words,  few  but 
rare,  from  Peace,  expressing  her  sense  of  his  mag 
nanimity,  when  she  came  to  know  of  it.  He  hoped 
that  a  fact  so  creditable  to  him,  and  so  characteristic, 
would  not  escape  the  notice  of  his  biographer.  He 
wished  that  Hughes  could  know  what  he  had  done, 
and  in  his  revery  he  contrived  that  his  generous  en 
deavor  should  be  brought  to  the  old  man's  knowledge ; 
he  had  Hughes  say  that  such  an  action  was  more  to 
him  than  the  publication  of  his  book. 

Throughout  his  transport  of  self-satisfaction  there 
ran  a  nether  torment  of  question  whether  Peace  Hughes 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  323 

could  possibly  suppose  that  he  was  privy  to  that  para 
graphing  about  his  book,  and  this  finally  worked  to 
the  surface,  and  become  his  whole  mood.  After  his 
joyful  riot  it  was  this  that  kept  him  awake  till  morn 
ing,  that  poisoned  all  his  pleasure  in  his  escape  from 
self-sacrifice.  He  could  only  pacify  himself  and  get 
some  sleep  at  last  by  promising  to  stop  at  the  pub 
lisher's  on  his  way  down  to  the  Every  Evening  office 
in  the  morning,  and  beseech  her  to  believe  that  he  had 
nothing  to  do  with  priming  the  press,  and  that  he 
wished  Mr.  Brandreth  had  not  told  him  of  it.  Noth 
ing  less  than  this  was  due  him  in  the  character  that  he 
desired  to  appear  in  hereafter. 

He  reached  the  publisher's  office  before  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  came  down,  and  when  he  said  he  would  like  to 
see  Miss  Hughes,  the  clerk  answered  that  Miss  Hughes 
had  sent  word  that  her  father  was  not  so  well,  and  she 
would  not  be  down  that  day. 

"  He's  pretty  low,  I  believe,"  the  clerk  volunteered. 

"  I'm  afraid  so,"  said  Ray. 

He  asked  if  the  clerk  would  call  a  messenger  to  take 
a  note  from  him  to  his  office,  and  when  he  had  de 
spatched  it  he  went  up  to  see  Hughes. 

"Did  you  get  our  message?"  Peace  asked  him  the 
iirst  thing. 

"  No,"  said  Ray.     "  What  message  ?  " 

"  That  we  sent  to  your  office.  He  has  been  wanting 
to  see  you  ever  since  he  woke  this  morning.  I  knew 
you  would  come !  " 

"  O  yes.     I  went   to  inquire   of  you  about  him  at 


324  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

Chapley's,  and  when  I  heard  that  he  was  worse,  of 
course  I  came.  Is  he  much  worse  ?  " 

"  He  can't  live  at  all.  The  doctor  says  it's  no  use. 
He  wants  to  see  you.  Will  you  come  in  ?  " 

"  Peace  !  "  Ray  hesitated.  "  Tell  me  !  Is  it  about 
his  book?" 

"Yes,  something  about  that.  He  wishes  to  speak 
with  you." 

"  Oh,  Peace  !  I've  done  all  I  could  about  that.  I 
went  straight  to  Mr.  Brandreth  and  tried  to  get  him 
to  take  it.  But  I  couldn't.  What  shall  I  tell  your 
father,  if  he  asks  me  ?  " 

"You  must  tell  him  the  truth,"  said  the  girl,  sadly. 

"Is  that  Mr.  Ray?"  Mrs.  Denton  called  from  the 
sick-room.  "Come  in,  Mr.  Ray.  Father  wants  you." 

"  In  a  moment.  Come  here,  Mrs.  Denton,"  Ray 
called  back. 

She  came  out,  and  he  told  her  what  he  had  told 
Peace.  She  did  not  seem  to  see  its  bearing  at  once. 
When  she  realized  it  all,  and  had  spent  her  quick 
wrath  in  denunciation  of  Mr.  Brandreth's  heartlessness, 
she  said  desperately :  "  Well,  you  must  come  now. 
Perhaps  it  isn't  his  book ;  perhaps  it's  something  else. 
But  he  wants  you." 

She  had  to  rouse  her  father  from  the  kind  of  torpor 
in  which  he  lay  like  one  dead.  She  made  him  under 
stand  who  was  there,  and  then  he  smiled,  and  turned 
his  eyes  appealingly  toward  Ray.  "  Put  your  ear  as 
close  to  his  lips  as  you  can.  He  can't  write  any  more. 
He  wants  to  say  something  to  you." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  325 

Ray  stooped  over  and  put  his  ear  to  the  drawn  lips. 
A  few  whiffs  of  inarticulate  breath  mocked  the  dying 
man's  endeavor  to  speak.  "  I'm  sorry ;  I  can't  catch 
a  syllable,"  said  Ray. 

A  mute  despair  showed  itself  in  the  old  man's  eyes. 

"  Look  at  me  father  !  "  cried  Mrs.  Denton.  "  Is  it 
ubout  your  book  ?  " 

The  faintest  smile  came  over  his  face. 

"  Did  you  wish  to  ask  Mr.  Ray  if  he  would  speak  to 
Mr.  Brandreth  about  i-t  ?  " 

The  smile  dimly  dawned  again. 

"  Well,  he  has  spoken  to  him.  He  went  to  see  him 
last  night,  and  he's  come  to  tell  you  "  —  Ray  shuddered 
and  held  his  breath  —  "  to  tell  you  that  Mr.  Brandreth 
will  take  your  book,  and  he's  going  to  publish  it  right 

Ivvay !  " 
A  beatific  joy  lit  up  Hughes's  face ;  and  Ray  drew 
a  long  breath. 

Peace  looked  at  her  sister. 

"I  don't  care!"  said  Mrs.  Denton,  passionately, 
dropping  her  voice.  "  You  have  your  light,  and  I  have 
mine." 


XXXTX. 

RAY  followed  Hughes  to  his  grave  in  the  place 
where  Denton  and  his  children  were  already  laid.  It 
did  not  seem  as  if  the  old  man  were  more  related  to 
them  in  death  than  he  had  been  in  life  by  their  propin 
quity  ;  but  it  satisfied  a  belated  maternal  and  conjugal 
sentiment  in  Mrs.  Denton.  She  did  not  relinquish  the 
leading  place  in  the  family  affairs  which  she  had  taken 
in  her  father's  last  days.  She  decided  against  staying 
in  their  present  apartment  after  their  month  was  out, 
and  found  a  tiny  flat  of  three  rooms  in  a  better  neigh 
borhood  down-town,  where  she  had  their  scanty  pos 
sessions  established,  including  the  cat. 

Kane  did  not  go  to  the  funeral  because  of  a  prejudice 
which  he  said  he  had  against  such  events ;  David 
Hughes,  he  said,  would  have  been  the  first  to  applaud 
his  sincerity  in  staying  away.  But  he  divined  that 
there  might  be  need  of  help  of  another  kind  in  the 
emergency,  and  he  gave  it  generously  and  delicately. 
He  would  not  suffer  Mr.  Brandreth  to  render  any  part 
of  this  relief;  he  insisted  that  it  was  his  exclusive 
privilege  as  Hughes's  old  friend.  Now  that  David 
was  gone,  he  professed  a  singularly  vivid  sense  of  his 
presence;  and  he  owned  that  he  had  something  like 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE,  327 

the  pleasure  of  carrying  a  point  against  him  in  defray 
ing  his  funeral  expenses. 

Hughes's  daughters  accepted  his  help  frankly,  each 
after  her  kind  :  Mrs.  Denton  as  a  gift  which  it  must 
long  continue  to  be ;  Peace  as  a  loan  which  must  some 
clay  be  repaid.  The  girl  went  back  to  her  work  in  due 
time,  and  whenever  Ray  visited  his  publisher  he  saw 
her  at  her  desk. 

He  did  not  always  go  to  speak  to  her,  for  he  had  a 
shamefaced  fear  that  she  was  more  or  less  always  en 
gaged  in  working  up  hints  from  Mr.  Brandreth  into 
paragraphs  about  a  A  Modern  Romeo.  His  conscious 
ness  exaggerated  the  publisher's  activity  in  this  sort ; 
and  at  first  he  shunned  all  these  specious  evidences  of 
public  interest  in  the  forthcoming  novel.  Then  he 
began  jealously  to  look  for  them,  and  in  his  mind  he 
arraigned  the  journals  where  they  did  not  appear  for 
envy  and  personal  spite.  It  would  have  been  difficult 
for  him  to  prove  why  there  should  have  been  either  in 
his  case,  unless  it  was  because  their  literary  notes  were 
controlled  by  people  whose  books  had  been  ignored  or 
censured  by  Every  Evening,  and  this  theory  could  riot 
hold  with  all.  Most  of  the  papers,  however,  published 
the  paragraphs,  with  that  munificence  which  journalism 
shows  towards  literature.  The  author  found  the  in 
spired  announcements  everywhere ;  sometimes  they 
were  varied  by  the  office  touch,  but  generally  they 
were  printed  exactly  as  Mr.  Brandreth  framed  them ; 
however  he  found  them,  they  gave  Ray  an  insensate 
joy.  Even  the  paragraphs  in  the  trade  journals,  purely 


328  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

perfunctory  as  they  were,  had  a  flavor  of  sincere  ap 
preciation  ;  the  very  advertisements  which  accompanied 
them  there  affected  him  like  favorable  expressions  of 
opinion.  His  hunger  for  them  was  inappeasable  ;  in 
his  heart  he  accused  Mr.  Brandreth  of  a  stinted  proc 
lamation. 

The  publisher  was  hurrying  the  book  forward  for 
the  summer  trade,  and  was  aiming  it  especially  at  the 
reader  going  into  the  country,  or  already  there.  He 
had  an  idea  that  the  summer  resorts  had  never  been 
fully  worked  in  behalf  of  the  better  sort  of  light  litera 
ture,  and  he  intended  to  make  any  sacrifice  to  get  the 
book  pushed  by  the  news  companies.  He  offered  them 
rates  ruinously  special,  and  he  persuaded  Ray  to  take 
five  per  cent,  on  such  sales  if  they  could  be  made.  He 
pressed  forward  the  printing,  and  the  author  got  his 
proofs  in  huge  batches,  with  a  demand  for  their  prompt 
return.  The  nice  revision  which  he  had  fancied  him 
self  giving  the  work  in  type  was  impossible;  it  went 
from  his  hand  with  crudities  that  glared  in  his  tormented 
sense,  till  a  new  instalment  eclipsed  the  last.  He 
balanced  the  merits  and  defects  against  one  another, 
and  tried  to  believe  that  the  merits  would  distract  the 
attention  of  criticism  from  the  defects.  He  always 
knew  that  the  story  was  very  weak  in  places  ;  he  con 
ceived  how  it  could  be  attacked  in  these ;  he  attacked 
it  himself  with  pitiless  ridicule  in  a  helpless  impersona 
tion  of  different  reviewers ;  and  he  gasped  in  his  self- 
inflicted  anguish.  When  the  last  proof  left  his  hands 
the  feeblest  links  were  the  strength  of  the  whole 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  329 

chain,  which  fell  to  pieces  from  his  grasp  like  a  rope 
of  sand. 

There  was  some  question  at  different  times  whether 
the  book  had  not  better  be  published  under  a  pseudonym, 
and  Ray  faithfully  submitted  it  to  the  editor  of  Every 
Evening,  as  something  he  was  concerned  in.  It  was 
to  be  considered  whether  it  was  advisable  for  a  critic 
to  appear  as  an  author,  and  whether  the  possible  failure 
of  the  book  would  not  react  unfavorably  upon  the 
criticisms  of  the  journal.  The  chief  decided  that  it 
would  make  no  difference  to  him,  and  at  the  worst  it 
could  do  no  more  than  range  Ray  with  the  other 
critics  who  had  failed  as  authors.  With  the  publisher 
it  was  a  more  serious  matter,  and  he  debated  much 
whether  the  book,  as  a  stroke  of  business,  had  not 
better  go  to  the  public  anonymously.  They  agreed 
that  P.  B.  8.  Ray  on  the  title-page  would  be  rather 
formidable  from  the  number  of  the  initials  which  the 
reader  would  have  to  master  in  speaking  of  the  author. 
Shelley  Ray,  on  the  other  hand,  would  be  taken  for  a 
sentimental  pseudonym.  They  decided  that  anonymity 
was  the  only  thing  for  it. 

"  But  then,  it  will  be  losing  the  interest  of  your 
money,  if  the  book  goes,"  Mr.  Brandreth  mused.  "  You 
have  a  right  to  the  cumulative  reputation  from  it,  so 
that  if  you  should  write  another  "  — 

"  Oh,  don't  be  afraid  of  there  ever  being  another !  " 
said  Ray,  with  his  distracted  head  between  his  hands. 
He  suddenly  lifted  it.  "  What  is  the  matter  with  the 
Spartan  severity  of  S.  Ray  ?  " 


330  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  S.  Ray  might  do,"  Mr.  Brandreth  assented,  thought 
fully.  "  Should  you  mind  my  asking  Mrs.  Brandreth 
how  it  strikes  her  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all.  Very  glad  to  have  you.  It's  short, 
and  unpretentious,  and  non-committal.  I  think  it 
might  do." 

Mrs.  Brandreth  thought  so  too,  and  in  that  form  the 
author's  name  appeared  on  the  title-page.  Even  in 
that  form  it  did  not  escape  question  and  censure.  One 
reviewer  devoted  his  criticism  of  the  story  to  inquiry 
into  the  meaning  of  the  author's  initial ;  another  sur 
mised  it  a  mask.  But,  upon  the  whole,  its  simplicity 
piqued  curiosity,  and  probably  promoted  the  fortune 
of  the  book,  as  far  as  that  went. 

There  was  no  immediate  clamor  over  it.  In  fact,  it 
was  received  so  passively  by  the  public  and  the  press 
that  the  author  might  well  have  doubted  whether  there 
was  any  sort  of  expectation  of  it,  in  spite  of  the  pub 
lisher's  careful  preparation  of  the  critic's  or  the  reader's 
mind.  There  came  back  at  once  from  obscure  quarters 
a  few  echoes,  more  or  less  imperfect,  of  the  synopsis 
of  the  book's  attractions  sent  out  with  the  editorial 
copies,  but  the  influential  journals  remained  heart- 
sickeningly  silent  concerning  A  Modern  Romeo.  There 
was  a  boisterous  and  fatuous  eulogy  of  the  book  in  the 
Midland  Echo,  which  Ray  knew  for  the  expression  of 
Sanderson's  friendship ;  but  eager  as  he  was  for 
recognition,  he  could  not  let  this  count ;  and  it  was 
followed  by  some  brief  depreciatory  paragraphs  in 
which  he  perceived  the  willingness  of  Hanks  Brothers 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  331 

to  compensate  themselves  for  having  so  handsomely 
let  Sanderson  have  his  swing.  He  got  some  letters  of 
acknowledgment  from  people  whom  he  had  sent  the 
book  ;  he  read  them  with  hungry  zest,  but  he  could  not 
make  himself  believe  that  they  constituted  impartial 
opinion  ;  not  even  the  letter  of  the  young  lady  who  had 
detected  him  in  the  panoply  of  his  hero,  and  who  now 
wrote  to  congratulate  him  on  a  success  which  she  too 
readily  took  for  granted.  One  of  his  sisters  replied  on 
behalf  of  his  father  and  mother,  and  said  they  had  all 
been  sitting  up  reading  the  story  aloud  together,  and 
that  their  father  liked  it  as  much  as  any  of  them ;  now 
they  were  anxious  to  see  what  the  papers  would  say ; 
had  he  read  the  long  review  in  the  Echo,  and  did  not 
he  think  it  rather  cool  and  grudging  for  a  paper  that 
he  had  been  connected  with  ?  He  hardly  knew  whether 
this  outburst  of  family  pride  gave  him  more  or  less 
pain  than  an  anonymous  letter  which  he  got  from  his 
native  village,  and  which  betrayed  the  touch  of  the 
local  apothecary  ;  his  correspondent,  who  also  dealt  in 
books,  and  was  a  man  of  literary  opinions,  heaped  the 
novel  with  ridicule  and  abuse,  and  promised  the  author 
a  coat  of  tar  arid  feathers  on  the  part  of  his  betters 
whom  he  had  caricatured,  if  ever  he  should  return  to 
the  place.  Ray  ventured  to  offer  a  copy  to  the  lady 
who  had  made  herself  his  social  sponsor  in  New  York, 
and  he  hoped  for  some  intelligent  praise  from  her. 
She  asked  him  where  in  the  world  he  had  got  together 
such  a  lot  of  queer  people,  like  nothing  on  earth  but 
those  one  used  to  meet  in  the  old  days  when  one  took 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

country  board  ;  she  mocked  at  the  sufferings  of  his 
hero,  and  said  what  a  vulgar  little  piece  his  heroine 
was ;  but  she  supposed  he  meant  them  to  be  what  they 
were,  and  she  complimented  him  on  his  success  in 
handling  them.  She  confessed,  though,  that  she  never 
read  American  novels,  or  indeed  any  but  French  ones, 
and  that  she  did  not  know  exactly  where  to  rank  his 
work ;  she  burlesqued  a  profound  impression  of  the 
honor  she  ought  to  feel  in  knowing  a  distinguished 
novelist.  "  You'll  be  putting  us  all  into  your  next 
book,  I  suppose.  Mind  you  give  me  golden  hair,  not 
yet  streaked  with  silver." 

In  the  absence  of  any  other  tokens  of  public  accept 
ance,  Ray  kept  an  eager  eye  out  for  such  signs  of  it  as 
might  be  detected  in  the  booksellers'  windows  and  on 
their  sign-boards.  The  placards  of  other  novels  flamed 
from  their  door-jambs,  but  they  seemed  to  know 
nothing  of  A  Modern  Romeo.  He  sought  his  book  in 
vain  among  those  which  formed  the  attractions  of  their 
casements  ;  he  found  it  with  difficulty  on  their  counters, 
two  or  three  rows  back,  and  in  remote  corners.  It 
was  like  a  conspiracy  to  keep  it  out  of  sight;  it  was 
not  to  be  seen  on  the  news-stands  of  the  great  hotels  or 
the  elevated  stations,  arid  Ray  visited  the  principal 
railway  depots  without  detecting  a  copy. 

He  blamed  Mr.  Brandreth  for  a  lack  of  business 
energy  in  all  this  ;  he  would  like  to  see  him  fulfil  some 
of  those  boasts  of  push  which,  when  he  first  heard 
them,  made  him  creep  with  shame.  Mr.  Brandreth 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  333 

had  once  proposed  a  file  of  sandwich  men  appealing 
with  succeesive  bill-boards  : 

I. 
HAVE  YOU  UK AD 

II. 
"A  MODERN  ROMKO?" 

III. 
EVERY  ONE  is  HEADING 

IV. 
"A  MODERN  ROMKO." 

V. 

WHY  ? 

VI. 
BECAUSE 

VII. 
"A  MODERN  ROMKO"  is 

VIII. 
THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  NOVEL. 

Ray  had  absolutely  forbidden  this  procession,  but  now 
he  would  have  taken  off  his  hat  to  it,  and  stood  un- 
;  covered,  if  he  could  have  met  it  in  Union  Square  or  in 
Twenty-third  Street. 


XL. 

IN  this  time  of  suspense  Ray  kept  away  from  old 
Kane,  whose  peculiar  touch  he  could  not  bear.  But 
he  knew  perfectly  well  what  his  own  feelings  were, 
and  he  did  not  care  to  have  them  analyzed.  He  could 
not  help  sending  Kane  the  book,  and  for  a  while  he 
dreaded  his  acknowledgments  ;  then  he  resented  his 
failure  to  make  any. 

In  the  frequent  visits  he  paid  to  his  publisher,  he 
fancied  that  his  welcome  from  Mr.  Brandreth  was 
growing  cooler,  and  he  did  not  go  so  often.  He  kept 
doggedly  at  his  work  in  the  Every  Evening  office ;  but 
here  the  absolute  silence  of  his  chief  concerning  his 
book  was  as  hard  to  bear  as  Mr.  Brandreth's  fancied 
coolness  ;  he  could  not  make  out  whether  it  meant 
compassion  or  dissatisfaction,  or  how  it  was  to  effect 
his  relation  to  the  paper.  The  worst  of  it  was  that 
his  adversity,  or  his  delayed  prosperity,  which  ever  it 
was,  began  to  corrupt  Jiim.  In  his  self-pity  he  wrote 
so  leniently  of  some  rather  worthless  books  that  he 
had  no  defence  to  make  when  his  chief  called  his  atten 
tion  to  the  wide  divergence  between  his  opinions  arid 
those  of  some  other  critics.  At  times  when  he  resented 
the  hardship  of  his  fate  he  scored  the  books  before  him 
with  a  severity  that  was  as  unjust  as  the.  weak  com 
miseration  in  his  praises.  He  felt  sure  that  if  the 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  335 

situation  prolonged  itself  his  failure  as  an  author  must 
involve  his  failure  as  a  critic. 

It  was  not  only  the  coolness  in  Mr.  Brandreth's 
welcome  which  kept  him  aloof ;  he  had  a  sense  of  re 
sponsibility,  which  was  almost  a  sense  of  guilt,  in  the 
publisher's  presence,  for  he  was  the  author  of  a  book 
which  had  been  published  contrary  to  the  counsel  of 
all  his  literary  advisers.  It  was  true  that  he  had  not 
finally  asked  Mr.  Brandreth  to  publish  it,  but  he  had 
been  eagerly  ready  to  have  him  do  it ;  he  had  kept 
his  absurd  faith  in  it,  and  his  steadfastness  must  have 
imparted  a  favorable  conviction  to  Mr.  Brandreth  ;  he 
knew  that  there  had  certainly  been  ever  so  much  per 
sonal  kindness  for  him  mixed  up  with  its  acceptance. 
The  publisher,  however  civil  outwardly  —  and  Mr. 
Brandreth,  with  all  his  foibles,  was  never  less  than  a 
gentleman  — must  inwardly  blame  him  for  his  unlucky 
venture.  The  thought  of  this  became  intolerable,  and 
at  the  end  of  a  Saturday  morning,  when  the  book  was 
three  or  four  weeks  old,  he  dropped  in  at  Chapley's  to 
have  it  out  with  Mr.  Brandreth.  The  work  on  the 
Saturday  edition  of  the  paper  was  always  very  heavy, 
and  Ray's  nerves  were  fretted  from  the  anxieties  of 
getting  it  together,  as  well  as  from  the  intense  labor 
of  writing.  He  was  going  to  humble  himself  to  the 
publisher,  and  declare  their  failure  to  be  all  his  own 
fault;  but  he  had  in  reserve  the  potentiality  of  a  bitter 
quarrel  with  him  if  he  did  not  take  it  in  the  right  way. 

He  pushed  on  to  Mr.  Brandreth's  room,  tense  with 
his  purpose,  and  stood  scowling  and  silent  when  he 


336  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

found  Kane  there  with  him.  Perhaps  the  old  fellow 
divined  the  danger  in  Ray's  mood ;  perhaps  he  pitied 
him ;  perhaps  he  was  really  interested  in  the  thing 
which  he  was  talking  of  with  the  publisher,  and  which 
he  referred  to  Ray  without  any  preliminary  ironies. 

"  It's  about  the  career  of  a  book ;  how  it  begins  to 
go,  and  why,  and  when." 

"  Apropos  of  A  Modern  Romeo  ? "  Ray  asked, 
harshly. 

"  If  you  please,  A  Modern  Romeo"  Ray  took  the 
chair  which  Mr.  Brandreth  signed  a  clerk  to  bring  him 
from  without.  Kane  went  on  :  "  It's  very  curious, 
the  history  of  these  things,  and  I've  looked  into  it 
somewhat.  Ordinarily  a  book  makes  its  fortune,  or  it 
doesn't,  at  once.  I  should  say  this  was  always  the 
case  with  a  story  that  had  already  been  published 
serially  ;  but  with  a  book  that  first  appears  as  a  book, 
the  chances  seem  to  be  rather  more  capricious.  The 
first  great  success  with  us  was  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  and 
that  was  assured  before  the  story  was  finished  in  the 
old  National  Era,  where  it  was  printed.  But  that 
had  an  immense  motive  power  behind  it  —  a  vital 
question  that  affected  the  whole  nation." 
J  "  T  seem  tft  ha_v^  onnie^toolate  for  the  vita.1  ques 
tions,"  said  Ray. 

il  Oh  no  !  oh  no  !  There  are  always  plenty  of  them 
left.  '1  here  id  the"  industrial  slavery ,"winch  exists  on 
a  muah  more  uiiiTcrya4-9^€»>la.than_tlje^ chattel  slavery  ; 
that  is  jjjiHJIjyajHntr  its  novelist." 

"  Or  its  Trust  of  novelists,"  Ray  scornfully  sug 
gested. 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  337 

jj  "  Very  good ;  very  excellent  good ;  nothing  less 
than  a  syndicate  perhaps  could  grapple  with  a  theme 
|of  such  vast  dimensions." 

*"*"  It  would  antagonize  a  large  part  of  the  reading 
public,"  Mr.  Brandreth  said ;  but  he  had  the  air  of 
making  a  mental  memorandum  to  keep  an  eye  out  for 
MSS.  dealing  with  industrial  slavery. 
• —  "  So  much  the  better !  So  much  the  better  !  "  said 
Kane.  "  Robert  Elsmere  antagonized  much  more  than 
half  its  readers  by  its  religious  positions.  But  that 
wasn't  what  I  was  trying  to  get  at.  I  was  thinking 
about  how  some  of  the  phenomenally  successful  books 
hung  fire  at  first." 

"""*"  Ah,  that  interests  me  as  the  author  of  a  phenom- 
inally  successful  book  that  is  still  hanging  fire,"  sighed 
Ray. 

Kane  smiled  approval  of  his  attempt  to  play  with 
his  pain,  and  went  on  :  "  You  know  that  Gates  Ajar, 
which  sold  up  into  the  hundred  thousands,  \vas  three 
months  selling  the  first  fifteen  hundred." 

"  Is  that  so  ?  "  Ray  asked.  "  A  Modern  Romeo  has 
been  three  weeks  selling  the  first  fifteen."  He 
laughed,  and  Mr.  Brandreth  with  him ;  but  the  fact 
encouraged  him.  and  he  could  see  that  it  encouraged 
the  publisher. 

"We  won't  speak  of  Mr.  Barnes  of  New  York" — 

"  Oh  no  !     Don't !  "  cried  Ray. 

"You  might  be  very  glad  to  have  written  it  on 
some  accounts,  my  dear  boy,"  said  Kane. 

"  Have  vou  read  it  ?  " 


338  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  That's  neither  here  nor  there.  I  haven't  seen 
Little  Lord  Fauntleroy.  But  I  wanted  to  speak  of 
Looking  Backward.  Four  months  after  that  was  pub 
lished,  the  first  modest  edition  was  still  unsold." 

Kane  rose.  "  I  just  dropped  in  to  impart  these 
facts  to  your  publisher,  in  case  you  and  he  might  be 
getting  a  little  impatient  of  the  triumph  which  seems 
to  be  rather  behind  time.  I  suppose  you've  noticed 
it?  These  little  disappointments  are  not  suffered  in  a 
corner." 

"  Then  your  inference  is  that  at  the  end  of  three  or 
four  months  A  Modern  Romeo  will  be  selling  at  the 
rate  of  five  hundred  a  day  ?  I'm  glad  for  Brandreth 
here,  but  I  shall  be  dead  by  that  time." 

"  Oh  no  !  Oh  no  !  "  Kane  softly  entreated,  while  he 
took  Ray's  hand  between  his  two  hands.  "  One 
doesn't  really  die  of  disappointed  literature  any  more 
than  one  dies  of  disappointed  love.  That  is  one  of 
the  pathetic  superstitions  which  we  like  to  cherish  in  a 
world  where  Ave  get  well  of  nearly  all  our  hurts,  and 
live  on  to  a  hale  old  imbecility.  Depend  upon  it,  my 
dear  boy,  you  will  survive  your  book  at  least  fifty 
years."  Kane  wrung  Ray's  hand,  and  got  himself 
quickly  away. 

"  There  is  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  what  he  says  "  — 
Mr.  Brandreth  began  cheerfully. 

"  About  my  outliving  my  book  ? "  Ray  asked. 
"  Thank  you.  There's  all  the  truth  in  the  world  in 
it." 

"I  don't  mean  that,  of  course.      I  mean  the  chances 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  339 

that  it  will  pick  up  any  time  within  three  months,  and 
make  its  fortune." 

"  You're  counting  on  a  lucky  accident." 
"Yes,  I  am.     I've  done  everything  I  can  to  push 
I  the  book,  and  now  we  must  trust  to  luck.  /You.  have 
|  toltrus-t  to L  luck  in  the.._hQok_business,  in  every  busi- 
j  ness.     Businegsjs-  buying  on  the  cliancejof  sellmgjat  a 
I  profit.     The  political  economists  talk  about  the  laws 
'  of  trusmess  ;  but  there  are  no  laws  of  business.     There 
is  nothing  but  chances,  and  no  amount  of  wisdom  can 
'forecast  them  or  control  them.     You   had  better   be 
prudent,  but  if  you  are  always  prudent  you  will  die 
poor.     *  Be  bold  ;  be  bold  ;  be  not  too  bold.'     That's 
(about  all  there  is  of  it.     And  I'm  going  to  be  cheerful 
'too.      I'm  still  betting  on  A  Modern  Romeo.'"     The 
young  publisher  leaned  forward  and  put  his  hand  on 
Ray's   shoulder,    in  a  kindly  way,    and  shook  him  a 
little.     "  Come !     What  will   you  bet  that  it  doesn't 
begin  to  go  within  the  next  fortnight?     I  don't  ask 
you  to  put  up  any  money.     Will  you  risk  the  copy 
right  on  the  first  thousand  ?  " 

O 

"  No,  I  won't  bet,"  said  Hay,  more  spiritlessly  than 
he  felt,  for  the  proposition  to  relinquish  a  part  of  his 
copyright  realized  it  to  him.  Still  he  found  it  safest 
not  to  allow  himself  any  revival  of  his  hopes  ;  if  he 
did  it  would  be  tempting  fate  to  clash  them  again.  In 
that  way  he  had  often  got  the  better  of  fate ;  there  was 
no  other  way  to  do  it,  at  least  for  him. 


XLI. 

AFTER  a  silent  and  solitary  dinner,  Ray  went  to 
see  Mrs.  Denton  and  Peace  in  their  new  lodging.  It 
was  the  upper  floor  of  a  little  house  in  Greenwich  Vil 
lage,  which  was  sublet  to  them  by  a  machinist  occupy 
ing  the  lower  floors  ;  Ray  vaguely  recalled  something 
in  his  face  at  his  first  visit,  and  then  recognized  one  of 
the  attendants  at  Hughes's  Sunday  ministrations.  He 
was  disposed  to  fellowship  Ray  in  Hughes's  doctrine, 
and  in  the  supposition  of  a  community  of  interest  in 
Hughes's  daughters.  They  could  not  have  been  in 
better  or  kindlier  keeping  than  that  of  the  machinist's 
friendly  wife,  who  must  have  fully  shared  his  notion  of 
Ray's  relation  to  them.  She  always  received  him  like 
one  of  the  family,  and  with  an  increasing  intimacy  and 
cordiality. 

That  evening  when  she  opened  the  street  door  to 
him  she  said,  "  Go  right  along  up  ;  I  guess  you'll  find 
them  there  all  right,"  and  Ray  mounted  obediently. 
Half-way  up  he  met  Mrs.  Denton  coming  down,  with 
her  cat  in  her  arms.  "  Oh,  well !  "  she  said.  "  You'll 
find  Peace  at  home ;  I'll  be  back  in  a  moment." 

He  suspected  that  Mrs.  Denton  fostered  the  belief 
of  the  machinist  and  his  wife  that  there  was  a  tacit  if 
not  an  explicit  understanding  between  himself  and 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  341 

Peace,  and  he  thought  that  she  would  now  very  prob 
ably  talk  the  matter  over  with  them.  But  he  kept  on 
up  to  the  little  apartment  at  the  top  of  the  house,  and 
tapped  on  the  door  standing  wide  open.  The  girl  was 
sitting  at  one  of  the  windows,  with  her  head  and  bust 
sharply  defined  against  the  glassy  clear  evening  light 
of  the  early  summer.  She  had  her  face  turned  toward 
the  street,  and  remained  as  if  she  did  not  hear  him  at 
first,  so  that  there  was  a  moment  when  it  went  through 
his  mind  that  he  would  go  away.  Then  she  looked 
round,  and  greeted  him ;  and  he  advanced  into  the 
room,  and  took  the  seat  fronting  her  on  the  other  side 
of  the  window.  There  was  a  small,  irregular  square 
below,  and  above  the  tops  of  its  trees  the  swallows 
were  weaving  their  swift  flight  and  twittering  song ; 
the  street  noises  came  up  slightly  muted  through  the 
foliage  ;  it  was  almost  like  a  sylvan  withdrawal  from 
the  city's  worst ;  and  they  talked  of  the  country,  and 
how  lovely  it  must  be  looking  now. 

He  said  :  "  Yes,  I  wonder  we  can  ever  leave  it. 
This  is  the  first  spring-time  that  I  have  ever  been 
where  I  couldn't  feel  my  way  with  Nature  at  every 
step  she  took.  It's  like  a  great  loss  out  of  my  life.  I 
think  sometimes  I  am  a  fool  to  have  staid  here  ;  I  can 
never  get  it  back.  I  could  have  gone  home,  and  been 
the  richer  by  the  experience  of  another  spring.  Why 
didn't  I  do  it?" 

"  Perhaps  you  couldn't  have  done  your  work  there," 
she  suggested. 

"  Oh,  my  work !     That  is  what   people  are  always 


342  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

sacrificing  the  good  of  life  to  —  their  work!  Is  it 
worth  so  much?  If  I  "couldn't  do  my  newspaper- 
work  th'ere^I  could  do  something  else.  I  could  write 
another  unsuccessful  novel." 

"  Is  your  novel  a  failure  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Don't  you  know  it  is  ?  It's  been  out  three  weeks, 
and  nobody  seems  to  know  it.  That's  my  grief,  now ; 
it  may  one  day  be  my  consolation.  I  don't  complain. 
Mr.  Brandreth  still  keeps  his  heroic  faith  in  it,  and 
even  old  Kane  was  trying  to  rise  on  the  wings  of  fav 
orable  prophecy  when  I  saw  him  just  before  dinner. 
But  I  haven't  the  least  hope  any  more.  I  think  I 
could  stand  it  better  if  I  respected  the  book  itself 
more.  But  to  fail  in  a  bad  cause  —  that's  bitter."  He 
stopped,  knowing  as  well  as  if  he  had  put  his  prayer  in 
words,  that  he  had  asked  her  to  encourage  him,  and  if 
possible,  flatter  him. 

"  I've  been  reading  it  all  through  again,  since  it 
came  out,"  she  said. 

"  Oh,  have  you  ?  "  he  palpitated. 

"  And  I  have  lent  it  to  the  people  in  the  house  here, 
and  they  have  read  it.  They  are  very  intelligent  in  a 
kind  of  way  "  — 

"  Yes  ? " 

"  And  they  have  been  talking  to  me  about  it ;  they 
have  been  discussing  the  characters  in  it.  They  like  it 
because  they  say  they  can  understand  just  how  every 
one  felt.  They  like  the  hero,  and  Mrs.  Simpson  cried 
over  the  last  scene.  She  thinks  you  have  managed 
the  heroine's  character  beautifully.  Mr.  Simpson 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  343 

wondered  whether   you  really  believe    in  hypnotism. 
They  both  said  they  felt  as  if  they  were  living  it." 

Ray  listened  with  a  curious  mixture  of  pleasure  and 
of  pain.  He  knew  very  well  that  it  was  not  pos 
sible  for  such  people  as  the  Simpsons  to  judge  his 
story  with  as  fine  artistic  perception  as  that  old  society 
woman  who  thought  he  meant  to  make  his  characters 
cheap  and  ridiculous,  and  in  the  light  of  this  knowl 
edge  their  praise  galled  him.  But  then  came  the  ques 
tion  whether  they  could  not  judge  better  of  its  truth 
ind  reality.  If  he  had  made  a  book  which  appealed 
the  feeling  and  knowledge  of  the  great,  simply-con- 
litioned,  sound-hearted,  common-schooled  American 
lass  whom  the  Simpsons  represented,  he  had  made 
his  fortune.  He  put  aside  that  other  question,  which 
from  time  to  time  presses  upon  every  artist,  whether 
he  would  rather  please  the  few"  who  despise  the  judg 
ment  of  the  many,  or  the  many  who  have  no  taste, 
but  somehow  have  in  their  keeping  the  touchstone  by 
which  a  work  of  art  proves  itself  a  human  interest, 
and  not  merely  a  polite  pleasure.  Ray  could  not 
make  this  choice.  He  said  dreamily :  "  If  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth  could  only  find  out  how  to  reach  all  the  Simp 
sons  with  it !  I  believe  a  twenty-five-cent  paper 
edition  would  be  the  thing  after  all.  I  wish  you  could 
tell  me  just  what  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Simpson  said  of  the 
book ;  and  if  you  can  remember  what  they  disliked  as 
well  as  what  they  liked  in  it." 

Peace   laughed   a  little.       "  Oh,   they  disliked   the 
wicked  people.     Thev  thought  the  hard  old  father  of 


344  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

the  heroine  was  terrible,  and  was  justly  punished  by 
his  daughter's  death.  At  the  same  time  they  thought 
you  ought  to  have  had  her  revive  in  time  to  seize  the 
hero's  hand,  when  he  is  going  to  shoot  himself,  and 
keep  him  from  giving  himself  a  mortal  wound.  The 
cousin  ought  to  get  well,  too ;  or  else  confess  before 
he  dies  that  he  intended  to  throw  the  hero  over  the 
cliff,  so  that  it  could  be  made  out  a  case  of  self-defence. 
Mr.  Simpson  says  that  could  be  done  to  the  satisfaction 
of  any  jury." 

Ray  laughed  too.  "  Yes.  It  would  have  been  more 
popular  if  it  had  ended  well." 

"  Perhaps  not,"  Peace  suggested.  "  Isn't  it  the 
great  thing  to  make  people  talk  about  a  book  ?  If  it 
ended  well  they  wouldn't  have  half  so  much  to  say  as 
they  will  now  about  it." 

"  Perhaps,"  Ray  assented  with  meek  hopefulness. 
"But,  Peace,  what  do  you  say  about  it?  You've 
never  told  me  that  yet.  Do  you  really  despise  it  so 
much  ?  " 

"  I've  never  said  that  I  despised  it." 

"  You've  never  said  you  didn't,  and  by  everything 
that  you've  done,  you've  left  me  to  think  that  you  do. 
I  know,"  said  the  young  man,  "  that  I'm  bringing  up 
associations  and  recollections  that  must  be  painful  to 
you;  they're  painful  and  humiliating  to  me.  But  it 
seems  to  me  that  you  owe  me  that  much." 

"  I  owe  you  much  more  than  that,"  said  the  girl. 
aDo  you  think  that  I  forget  —  can  forget  —  anything 
—  all  that  you've  been  to  us  ?  " 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  345 

"Oh,  don't  speak  of  it!"  said  Kay.  <;  I  didn't 
mean  that.  And  you  needn't  tell  me  now  what  you 
think  of  my  book.  But  sometime  you  will,  won't 
you?"  He  drew  forward  a  little  nearer  to  her,  where 
they  sat  in  the  light  which  had  begun  to  wane.  "  Until 
then  —  until  then  —  I  want  you  to  let  me  be  the  best 
friend  you  have  in  the  world  —  the  best  friend  I  can  be 
to  any  one." 

He  stopped  for  some  answer  from  her,  and  she  said: 
"  No  one  could  be  a  truer  friend  to  us  than  you  have 
been,  from  the  very  first.  And  we  have  mixed  you 
up  so  in  our  trouble !  " 

"  Oh,  no !  But  if  it's  given  me  any  sort  of  right  to 
keep  on  coming  to  see  Mrs.  Denton  and  you,  just  as  I 
used  ?  " 

"  Why  not  ?  "  she  returned. 


XLII. 

RAY  went  home  ill  at  ease  with  himself.  He  spent 
a  bad  night,  and  he  seemed  to  have  sunk  away  only  a 
moment  from  his  troubles,  when  a  knock  at  his  door 
brought  him  up  again  into  the  midst  of  them.  He 
realized  them  before  he  realized  the  knock  sufficiently 
to  call  out,  "  Who's  there  ?  " 

"  Oh !  "  said  Mr.  Brandreth's  voice  without ;  "  you're 
not  up  yet !  Can*  I  come  in  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  said  Ray,  and  he  leaned  forward  and 
slid  back  the  bolt  of  his  door  :  it  was  one  advantage 
of  a  room  so  small  that  he  could  do  this  without  get 
ting  out  of  bed. 

Mr.  Brandreth  seemed  to  beam  with  one  radiance 
from  his  silk  hat,  his  collar,  his  boots,  his  scarf,  his 
shining,  eyes  and  smooth-shaven  friendly  face,  as  he 
entered. 

"Of  course,"  he  said,  "you  haven't  seen  the  Me 
tropolis  yet  ?  " 

"  No  ;  what  is  the  matter  with  the  Metropolis  ?  " 

Mr.  Brandreth,  with  his  perfectly  fitted  gloves  on, 
and  his  natty  cane  dangling  from  his  wrist,  unfolded 
the  supplement  of  the  newspaper,  and  accurately 
folded  it  again  to  the  lines  of  the  first  three  columns 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  347 

of  the  page.     Then  he  handed  it  to  Ray,  and  delicately 
turned  away  and  looked  out  of  the  window. 

Ray  glanced  at  the  space  denned,  and  saw  that  it 
was  occupied  by  a  review  of  A  Modern  Romeo.  There 
were  lengths  of  large  open  type  for  the  reviewer's  in 
troduction  and  comments  and  conclusion,  and  embedded 
among  these,  in  closer  and  finer  print,  extracts  from 
the  novel,  where  Ray  saw  his  own  language  trans 
figured  and  glorified. 

—  The  critic  struck  in  the  beginning  a  note  which  he 
sounded  throughout ;  a  cry  of  relief,  of  exultation,  at 
what  was  apparently  the  beginning  of  a  new  order  of 
things  in  fiction.  He  hailed  the  unknown  writer  of 
A  Modern  Jtomeo  as  the  champion  of  the  imaginative 
I  and  the  ideal  against  the  photographic  and  the  common- 
|  place,  and  he  expressed  a  pious  joy  in  the  novel  as  a 
'bold  advance  in  the  path  that  was  to  lead  forever  away 
.from  the  slough  of  realism.  But  he  put  on  a  phil 
osophic  air  in  making  the  reader  observe  that  it  was 
not  absolutely  a  new  departure,  a  break,  a  schism ;  it 
was  a  natural  and  scientific  evolution,  it  was  a  develop 
ment  of  the  spiritual  from  the  material ;  the  essential 
part  of  realism  was  there,  but  freed  from  the  grossness, 
the  dulness  of  realism  as  we  had  hitherto  known  it, 
and  imbued  with  a  fresh  life.  He  called  attention  to 
the  firmness  and  fineness  with  which  the  situation  was 
portrayed  and  the  characters  studied  before  the  imagi 
nation  began  to  deal  with  them ;  and  then  he  asked 
the  reader  to  notice  how,  when  this  foundation  had 
once  been  laid,  it  was  made  to  serve  as  a  "  star-ypoint- 


348  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

ing  pyramid  "  from  which  the  author's  fancy  took  its 
bold  flight  through  realms  untravelled  by  the  photo 
graphic  and  the  commonplace.  He  praised  the  style 
of  the  book,  which  he  said  corresponded  to  the  dual 
nature  of  the  conception,  and  recalled  Thackeray  in 
the  treatment  of  persons  and  things,  and  Hawthorne 
in  the  handling  of  motives  and  ideas.  There  was,  in 
fact,  so  much  subtlety  in  the  author's  dealing  with 
these,  that  one  might  almost  suspect  a  feminine  touch, 
but  for  the  free  and  virile  strength  shown  in  the  pas 
sages  of  passion  and  action. 

The  reviewer  quoted  several  of  such  passages,  and 
Ray  followed  with  a  novel  intensity  of  interest  the 
words  he  already  knew  by  heart.  The  whole  episode 
of  throwing  the  cousin  over  the  cliff  was  reprinted; 
but  the  parts  which  the  reviewer  gave  the  largest  room 
and  the  loudest  praise  were  those  embodying  the  inci 
dents  of  the  hypnotic  trance  and  the  tragical  close  of 
the  story.  Here,  he  said,  was  a  piece  of  the  most  pal 
pitant  actuality,  and  he  applauded  it  as  an  instance  of 
how  the  imagination  might  deal  with  actuality.  Noth 
ing  in  the  whole  range  of  commonplace,  photographic, 
realistic  fiction  was  of  such  striking  effect  as  this 
employment  of  a  scientific  discovery  in  the  region  of 
the  ideal.  He  contended  that  whatever  lingering 
doubt  people  might  have  of  the  usefulness  of  hypnotism 
as  a  remedial  agent,  there  could  be  no  question  of  the 
splendid  success  with  which  the  writer  of  this  remark 
able  novel  had  turned  it  to  account  in  poetic  fiction  of 
a  very  high  grade.  He  did  not  say  the  highest  grade; 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  349 

the  book  had  many  obvious  faults.  It  was  evidently 
the  first  book  of  a  young  writer,  whose  experience  of 
life  had  apparently  been  limited  to  a  narrow  and  com 
paratively  obscure  field.  It  was  in  a  certain  sense 
provincial,  even  parochial ;  but  perhaps  the  very  want 
of  an  extended  horizon  had  concentrated  the  author's 
thoughts  the  more  penetratingly  on  the  life  immediately 
at  hand.  What  was  important  was  that  he  had  seen 
this  life  with  the  vision  of  an  idealist,  and  had  dis 
cerned  its  poetic  uses  with  the  sense  of  the  born  artist, 
and  had  set  it  in 

"  The  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land." 

Much  more  followed  to  like  effect,  and  the  reviewer 
closed  with  a  promise  to  look  with  interest  for  the 
future  performance  of  a  writer  who  had  already  given 
much  more  than  the  promise  of  mastery ;  who  had 
given  proofs  of  it.  His  novel  might  not  be  the  great 
American  novel  which  we  had  so  long  been  expecting, 
but  it  was  a  most  notable  achievement  in  the  right 
direction.  The  author  was  the  prophet  of  better  things ; 
he  was  a  Moses,  who,  if  we  followed  him,  would  lead  us 
up  from  the  flesh-pots  of  Realism  toward  the  promised 
land  of  the  Ideal. 

From  time  to  time  Ray  made  a  little  apologetic  show 
of  not  meaning  to  do  more  than  glance  the  review 
over,  but  Mr.  Brandreth  insisted  upon  his  taking  his 
time  and  reading  it  all ;  he  wanted  to  talk  to  him  about 

O  7 

it.  He  began  to  talk  before  Ray  finished ;  in  fact  he 
agonized  him  with  question  and  comment,  all  through ; 


350  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

and  when  Ray  laid  the  paper  down  at  last,  he  came 
and  sat  on  the  edge  of  his  bed. 

"  Now,  I'll  tell  you  what  I'm  going  to  do.  I  don't 
believe  in  working  on  Sunday,  and  that  sort  of.  thing  ; 
but  I  believe  this  is  providential.  My  wife  does,  too  ; 
she  says  it's  a  reward  for  the  faith  we've  had  in  the 
book ;  and  that  it  would  be  a  sin  to  lose  a  moment's 
time.  If  there  is  to  be  any  catch-on  at  all,  it  must  be 
instantaneous  ;  we  mustn't  let  the  effect  of  this  review 
get  cold,  and  I'm  going  to  strike  while  it's  red-hot." 
The  word  seem  to  suggest  the  magnitude  of  the  pur 
pose  which  Mr.  Brandreth  expressed  with  seriousness 
that  befitted  the  day.  "  I'm  simply  going  to  paint  the 
universe  red.  You'll  see." 

"Well,  well,"  said  Ray,  "you'd  better  not  tell  me 
how.  I  guess  I've  got  as  much  as  I  can  stand,  now." 

"  If  that  book  doesn't  succeed,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth, 
as  solemnly  as  if  registering  a  vow,  "it  won't  be  my 
fault." 

He  went  away,  and  Ray  passed  into  a  trance  such 
as  wraps  a  fortunate  lover  from  the  outer  world.  But 
nothing  was  further  from  his  thoughts  than  love.  The 
passion  that  possessed  him  was  egotism  flattered  to  an 
intensity  in  which  he  had  no  life  but  in  the  sense  of 
himself.  No  experience  could  be  more  unwholesome 
while  it  lasted,  but  a  condition  so  intense  could  not 
endure.  His  first  impulse  was  to  keep  away  from 
every  one  who  could  keep  him  from  the  voluptuous 
sense  of  his  own  success.  He  knew  very  well  that  the 
review  in  the  Metropolis  overrated  his  book,  but  he 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  351 

liked  it  to  be  overrated ;  he  wilfully  renewed  his  de 
lirium  from  it  by  reading  it  again  and  again,  over  his 
breakfast,  on  the  train  to  the  Park,  and  in  the  lonely 
places  which  he  sought  out  there  apart  from  all  who 
could  know  him  or  distract  him  from  himself.  At  first 
it  seemed  impossible ;  at  last  it  became  unintelligible. 
He  threw  the  paper  into  some  bushes  ;  then  after  he 
had  got  a  long  way  off,  he  went  back  and  recovered  it, 
and  read  the  review  once  more.  The  sense  had  re 
turned,  the  praises  had  relumed  their  fires ;  again  he 
bathed  his  spirit  in  their  splendor.  It  was  he,  he,  he, 
of  whom  those  things  were  said.  He  tried  to  realize 
it.  Who  was  he?  The  question  scared  him;  per 
haps  he  was  going  out  of  his  mind.  At  any  rate  he 
must  get  away  from  himself  now ;  that  was  his  only 
safety.  He  thought  whom  he  should  turn  to  for  refuge. 
There  were  still  people  of  his  society  acquaintance  in 
town,  and  he  could  have  had  a  cup  of  tea  poured  for 
him  by  a  charming  girl  at  any  one  of  a  dozen  friendly 
houses.  There  were  young  men,  more  than  enough 
of  them,  who  would  have  welcomed  him  to  their 
bachelor  quarters.  There  Avas  old  Kane.  But  they 
would  have  all  begun  to  talk  to  him  about  that  review  ; 
Peace  herself  would  have  done  so.  He  ended  by  go 
ing  home,  and  setting  to  work  on  some  notices  for  the 
next  day's  Every  Evening.  The  performance  was  a 
play  of  double  consciousness  in  which  he  struggled 
Avith  himself  as  if  with  some  alien  personality.  But 
the  next  day  he  could  take  the  time  to  pay  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth  a  visit  without  wronging  the  work  he  had  carried 

so  far. 

23 


352  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

On  the  way  he  bought  the  leading  morning  papers, 
'  and  saw  that  the  publisher  had  reprinted  long  extracts 
from  the  Metropolis  review  as  advertisments  in  the 
type  of  the  editorial  page  ;  in  the  Metropolis  itself  he 
reprinted  the  whole  review.  "  This  sort  of  thing  will 
be  in  the  principal  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Chicago, 
Cincinnati,  and  St.  Louis  papers  just  as  soon  as  the 
mail  can  carry  them  my  copy.  I  had  thought  of  tele 
graphing  the  advertisement,  but  it  will  cost  money 
enough  as  it  is,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth. 

"  Are  you  sure  you're  not  throwing  your  money 
away  ?  "  Ray  asked,  somewhat  aghast. 

"  I'm  sure  I'm  not  throwing  my  chance  away,"  the 
publisher  retorted  with  gay  courage.  He  developed 
the  plan  of  campaign  as  he  had  conceived  it,  and  Ray 
listened  with  a  kind  of  nerveless  avidity.  He  looked 
over  at  Mr.  Chapley's  room,  where  he  knew  that 
Peace  was  busily  writing,  and  he  hoped  that  she  did 
not  know  that  he  was  there.  His  last  talk  with  her 
had  mixed  itself  up  with  the  intense  experience  that 
had  followed,  and  seemed  of  one  frantic  quality  with 
it.  He  walked  out  to  the  street  door  with  Mr.  Bran 
dreth  beside  him,  and  did  not  turn  for  a  glimpse  of 
her. 

"  Oh  by-the-way,"  said  the  publisher  at  parting,  "if 
you'd  been  here  a  little  sooner,  I  could  have  made  you 
acquainted  with  your  reviewer.  He  dropped  in  a  little 
while  ago  to  ask  who  S.  Ray  was,  and  I  did  my  best 
to  make  him  believe  it  was  a  real  name.  I  don't  think 
he  was  more  than  half  convinced." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  353 

"  I  don't  more  than  half  believe  in  him,"  said  Ray, 
lightly,  to  cover  his  disappointment.  "  Who  is  he  ?  " 

"  Well,  their  regular  man  is  off  on  sick  leave,  and 
this  young  fellow  —  Worrell  is  his  name  —  is  a  sort  of 
under  study.  He  was  telling  me  how  he  happened  to 
go  in  for  your  book  —  those  things  are  always  interest 
ing.  He  meant  to  take  another  book  up  to  his  house 
with  him,  and  he  found  he  had  yours  when  he  got 
home,  and  some  things  about  hypnotism.  He  went 
through  them,  and  then  he  thought  he  would  just  glance 
at  yours,  anyway,  and  he  opened  on  the  hypnotic  trance 
scene,  just  when  his  mind  was  full  of  the  subject,  and 
he  couldn't  let  go.  He  went  back  to  the  beffinnino' 

~  o  & 

and  read  it  all  through,  and  then  he  gave  you  the 
benefit  of  the  other  fellow's  chance.  He  wanted  to 
see  you,  when  I  told  him  about  you.  Curious  how 
these  things  fall  out,  half  the  time  ?  " 

"Very,"  said  Ray,  rather  blankly. 

"  I  knew  you'd  enjoy  it," 

"  Oh,  I  do." 


XLIII. 

WHETHER  the  boom  for  A  Modern  Borneo  which 
began  with  the  appearance  of  the  Metropolis  review 
was  an  effect  of  that  review  or  not,  no  one  acquainted 
with  the  caprices  of  the  book  trade  would  undertake  to 
say.  There  had  been  enthusiastic  reviews  of  other 
books  in  the  Metropolis  which  had  resulted  in  no  boom 
whatever,  as  Kane  pointed  out  in  ironically  inviting 
the  author  to  believe  that  the  success  of  the  book  was 
due  wholly  to  its  merit. 

"  And  what  wras  its  long  failure  due  to  ? "  Ray 
asked,  tasting  the  bitter  of  the  suggestion,  but  feigning 
unconsciousness. 

"To  its  demerit." 

Mr.  Brandreth  was  at  first  inclined  to  ascribe  the 
boom  to  the  review  ;  afterwards  he  held  that  it  was 
owing  to  his  own  wise  and  bold  use  of  the  review  in 
advertising.  There,  he  contended,  was  the  true  chance, 
which,  in  moments  of  grateful  piety,  he  claimed  that 
he  was  inspired  to  seize.  What  is  certain  is  that  other 
friendly  reviews  began  to  appear  in  other  influential 
journals,  in  New  York  and  throughout  the  country. 
Ray  began  to  see  the  book  on  the  news-stands  now ; 
he  found  it  in  the  booksellers'  windows  ;  once  he  heard 
people  in  an  elevated  car  talking  of  it ;  somehow  it 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  355 

was  in  the  air.  But  how  it  got  in  the  air,  no  one  could 
exactly  say ;  he,  least  of  all.  He  could  put  his  hand 
on  certain  causes,  gross,  palpable,  like  the  advertising 
activities  of  Mr.  Brandreth  ;  but  these  had  been  in 
effectless  operation  long  before.  He  could  not  define 
the  peculiar  attraction  that  the  novel  seemed  to  have, 
even  when  frankly  invited  to  do  so  by  a  vivid  young 
girl  who  wrote  New  York  letters  for  a  Southern  paper, 
and  who  came  to  interview  him  about  it.  The  most 
that  he  could  say  was  that  it  had  struck  a  popular 
mood.  She  was  very  grateful  for  that  idea,  and  she 
made  much  of  it  in  her  next  letter ;  but  she  did  not 
succeed  in  analyzing  this  mood,  except  as  a  general 
readiness  for  psychological  fiction  on  the  part  of  a 
reading  public  wearied  and  disgusted  with  the  realism 
of  the  photographic,  commonplace  school.  She  was 
much  more  precise  in  her  personal  account  of  Ray  ; 
the  young  novelist  appeared  there  as  a  type  of  manly 
beauty,  as  to  his  face  and  head,  but  of  a  regrettably 
low  stature,  which,  however,  you  did  not  observe  while 
he  remained  seated.  It  was  specially  confided  to  lady 
readers  that  his  slightly  wavy  dark  hair  was  parted  in 
the  middle  over  a  forehead  as  smooth  and  pure  as  a 
girl's.  The  processed  reproduction  of  Ray's  photo 
graph  did  not  perfectly  bear  out  her  encomium  ;  but  it 
was  as  much  like  him  as  it  was  like  her  account  of  him. 
His  picture  began  to  appear  in  many  places,  with  ro 
manced  biographies,  which  made  much  of  the  obscurity 
of  his  origin  and  the  struggles  of  his  early  life,.  When 
it  came  to  be  said  that  he  sprang  from  the  lower  classes, 


356  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

it  brought  him  a  letter  of  indignant  protest  from  his 
mother,  who  reminded  him  that  his  father  was  a  phy 
sician,  and  his  people  had  always  been  educated  and 
respectable  on  both  sides.  She  the  tight  that  he  ought 
to  write  to  the  papers  and  stop  the  injurious  paragraph  ; 
and  he  did  not  wholly  convince  her  that  this  was  im 
possible.  He  could  not  have  made  her  understand 
how  in  the  sudden  invasion  of  publicity  his  personality 
fead- quite  passert-eut-ef-his.  own  keeping.  The  inter 
viewers  were  upon  him  everywhere :  at  his  hotel,  whose 
quaintness  and  foreign  picturesqueness  they  made  go 
far  in  their  studies  of  him ;  at  the  Every  Evening  office, 
where  their  visits  subjected  him  to  the  mockery  of  his 
associates  on  the  paper.  His  chief  was  too  simple  and 
serious  of  purpose  to  take  the  comic  view  of  Ray's 
celebrity ;  when  he  realized  it  through  the  frequency 
of  the  interviews,  he  took  occasion  to  say :  "  I  like 
your  work  and  I  want  to  keep  you.  As  it  is  only  a 
question  of  time  when  you  will  ask  an  increase  of 
salary,  I  prefer  to  anticipate,  and  you'll  find  it  put  up 
in  your  next  check  to  the  figure  which  I  think  the 
paper  ought  to  stand."  He  did  not  otherwise  recognize 
the  fact  of  the  book's  success,  or  speak  of  it ;  as  com 
pared  with  his  paper,  Ray's  book  was  of  no  importance 
to  him  whatever. 

The  interviews  were  always  flattering  to  Ray's 
vanity,  in  a  certain  way,  but  it  was  rather  wounding 
to  find  that  most  of  the  interviewers  had  not  read  his 
book  ;  though  they  had  just  got  it,  or  they  were  going 
to  get  it  and  read  it.  In  some  cases  they  came  to  him 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  357 

with  poetic  preoccupations  from  previous  interviews 
with  Mr.  Brandreth,  and  he  could  not  disabuse  them 
of  the  notion  that  his  literary  career  had  been  full  of 
facts  much  stranger  than  fiction. 

•*  Mr.  Brandreth  says  that  if  the  truth  could  be  told 
about  that  book,"  one  young  lady  journalist  stated, 
keeping  her  blue  eyes  fixed  winningly  upon  the 
author's,  "  it  would  form  one  of  the  most  dramatic 
chapters  in  the  whole  history  of  literature.  Won't 
you  tell  me  the  truth  about  it,  Mr.  Ray  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  don't  know  the  truth  about  it  myself," 
Ray  said. 

"  Oh,  how  delightful !  "  cried  the  young  lady.  "  I'm 
going  to  put  that  in,  at  any  rate  ; "  and  she  continued 
to  work  the  young  author  with  her  appealing  eyes  and 
her  unusually  intelligent  flatteries,  until  she  had  got 
a  great  deal  more  out  of  him  concerning  the  pericula- 
tions  of  his  novel  in  manuscript  than  he  could  have 
believed  himself  capable  of  telling. 

He  went  to  Mr.  Brandreth  smarting  with  a  sense  of 
having  made  a  fool  of  himself,  and,  "  See  here,  Bran 
dreth,"  he  said,  "  what  is  so  very  remarkably  dramatic 
in  the  history  of  a  novel  kicking  about  for  six  months 
among  the  trade  ?  " 

Mr.  Brandreth  stared  at  him,  and  then  said,  with  a 
flash  of  recollection,  "Oh!  That  girl!  Well,  she 
was  determined  to  have  something  exclusive  about  the 
book,  and  I  just  threw  out  the  remark.  I  wasn't 
thinking  of  your  side  of  the  business  entirely.  Ray, 
you're  a  good  fellow,  and  I  don't  mind  telling  you  that 


358  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

when  I  chanced  it  on  this  book  of  yours,  it  had  got  to 
a  point  with  us  where  we  had  to  chance  it  on  some 
thing.  Mr.  Chapley  had  let  the  publishing  interests 
of  the  house  go  till  there  was  hardly  anything  of  them 
left;  and  when  he  went  up  into  the  country,  this 
spring,  he  was  strongly  opposed  to  my  trying  anything 
in  the  publishing  line.  But  my  wife  and  I  talked  it 
over,  and  she  saw  as  well  as  I  did  that  I  should  either 
have  to  go  actively  into  the  business,  or  else  go  out  of 
it.  As  it  stood,  it  wouldn't  support  two  families.  So 
I  made  up  my  mind  to  risk  your  book.  If  it  had 
failed  it  would  have  embarrassed  me  awfully  ;  I  don't 
say  but  what  I  could  have  pulled  through,  but  it  would 
have  been  rough  sledding." 

"That  is  interesting,"  said  Ray.  "  I  don't  see  why 
I  shouldn't  begin  to  pose  as  your  preserver." 

"  Well,  it  wasn't  quite  so  bad  as  that,"  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth  gayly  protested.  "  And  at  the  last  moment  it 
might  have  been  some  one  else.  There's  no  reason 
why  I  shouldn't  tell  you  that  the  night  you  came  and 
wanted  me  to  take  old  Hughes's  book,  I  talked  it  very 
seriously  over  with  my  wife,  and  we  determined  that 
we  would  look  at  it  in  the  morning,  and  perhaps  post 
pone  your  novel.  We  woke  the  baby  up  with  our 
talk,  and  then  he  woke  us  up  the  rest  of  the  night,  and 
in  the  morning  we  were  not  fit  to  grapple  with  the 
question,  and  I  took  that  for  a  sign  and  let  them  go 
on  with  your  book.  I  suppose  these  things  were  in 
my  mind  when  I  told  that  girl  what  she  repeated  to 
you." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  359 

"  Well,  the  incidents  are  dramatic  enough,"  said 
Ray,  musingly.  "  Even  tragical." 

"  Yes,"  sighed  Mr.  Brandreth.  "  I  always  dreaded 
to  ask  you  how  you  made  it  right  with  Mr.  Hughes." 

" Oh,  Mrs.  Denton  made  it  right  with  him"  Ray 
scoffed.  "  I  told  her  how  I  failed  with  you,  and  she 
went  right  to  him  and  said  that  you  had  taken  his 
book  and  would  bring  it  out  at  once." 

Mr.  Brandreth  looked  pained.  "Well,  I  don't 
know  what  to  say  about  that.  But  I'm  satisfied  now 
that  I  acted  for  the  best  in  keeping  on  with  your 
book.  I'm  going  to  have  Mr.  Hughes's  carefully  ex 
amined,  though.  I  believe  there's  the  making  of 
another  hit  in  it.  By-the-way,"  he  ended,  cheerily, 
"you'll  be  glad  to  know  that  A  Modern  Romeo  has 
come  of  age;  we've  just  printed  the  twenty-first 
thousand  of  him." 

"  Is  it  possible ! "  said  Ray,  with  well-simulated 
rapture.  With  all  the  talk  there  had  been  about 
the  book,  he  supposed  it  had  certainly  gone  to  fifty 
thousand  by  this  time. 

The  sale  never  really  reached  that  figure.  It  went 
to  forty  two  or  three  thousand,  and  there  it  stopped, 
and  nothing  could  carry  it  farther.  The  author  talked 
the  strange  arrest  over  with  the  publisher,  but  they 
could  arrive  at  no  solution  of  the  mystery.  There 
was  no  reason  why  a  book  which  had  been  so  widely 
talked  about  and  written  about  should  not  keep  on 
selling  indefinitely ;  there  was  every  reason  why  it 
should ;  but  it  did  not.  Had  it,  by  some  process  of 


360  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

natural  selection,  reached  exactly  those  people  who 
cared  for  a  psychological  novel  of  its  peculiar  make, 
and  were  there  really  no  more  of  them  than  had  given 
it  just  that  vogue?  He  sought  a  law  for  the  fact  in 
vain,  in  the  more  philosophical  discussions  he  held 
with  old  Kane,  as  well  as  in  his  inquiries  with  Mr. 
Brandreth. 

Finally,  Kane  said  :  "  Why  do  we  always  seek  a 
law  for  tilings?  Js  there  a  law  for  ourselves?  We 
think  so,_but  it's  out  of  sight  for  the  most  part,  and 
generally  we  aot  from  mere  caprice,  from  impulse. 
I've  lived  a  good  many  years,  but  I  couldn't  honestly 
say  that  I've  seen  the  cause  overtaken  by  the  conse 
quence  more  than  two  or  three  times ;  then  it  struck 
me  as  rather  theatrical.  Consequences  I've  seen  a 
plenty,  but  not  causes.  Perhaps  this  is  merely  a 
sphere  of  ultimations.  We  used  to  natter  ourselves, 
in  the  simple  old  days,  when  we  thought  we  were  all 
miserable  sinners,  that  wre  were  preparing  tremendous 
effects,  to  follow  elsewhere,  by  what  we  said  and  did 
here.  But  what  if  the  things  that  happen  here  are 
effects  initiated  elsewhere  ?  " 

"  It's  a  very  pretty  conjecture,"  said  Ray,  "  but  it 
doesn't  seem  to  have  a  very  direct  bearing  on  the  fall 
ing  off  in  the  sale  of  A  Modern  Romeo" 

"  Everything  in  the  universe  is  related  to  that  book, 
if  you  could  only  see  it  properly.  If  it  has  stopped 
selling,  it  is  probably  because  the  influence  of  some 
favorable  star,  extinguished  thousands  of  years  ago, 
has  just  ceased  to  reach  this  planet." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  361 

Kane  had  the  air  of  making  a  mental  note  after  he 
said  this,  and  Ray  began  to  laugh.  "  There  ought  to 
be  money  in  that,"  he  said. 

"  No,  there  is  no  money  in  Hard  Sayings,"  Kane 
returned,  sadly  ;  "  there  is  only  —  wisdom." 

Ray  was  by  no  means  discouraged  with  his  failures 
to  divine  the  reason  for  the  arrested  sale  of  his  book. 
At  heart  he  was  richly  satisfied  with  its  success,  and 
he  left  the  public  without  grudging,  to  their  belief  that 
it  had  sold  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  Mr.  Bran- 
dreth  was  satisfied,  too.  He  believed  that  the  sale 
would  pick  up  again  in  the  fall  after  people  got  back 
from  the  country;  he  had  discovered  that  the  book 
had  enduring  qualities  ;  but  now  the  question  was, 
what  was  Ray  going  to  write  next?  "You  ought  to 
strike  while  the  iron's  hot,  you  know." 

"  Of  course,  I've  been  thinking  about  that,"  the 
young  fellow  admitted,  "  and  I  believe  I've  got  a  pretty 
good  scheme  for  a  novel." 

"  Could  you  give  me  some  notion  of  it  ?  " 

"  No,  I  couldn't.  It  hasn't  quite  crystallized  in  my 
mind  yet.  And  I  don't  believe  it  will,  somehow,  till  I 
get  a  name  for  it." 

"  Have  you  thought  of  a  name  ?  " 

"Yes —  half-a-dozen  that  won't  do." 

"  There's  everything  in  a  name,"  said  the  publisher. 
"  I  believe  it  made  the  Modern  Romeo's  fortune." 

Ray  mused  a  moment.  "  How  would  A  Rose  ~by  any 
other  Name  do  ?  " 

"That's    rather    attractive,"    said    Mr.    Brandreth. 


362  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"Well,  anyway,  remember  that  we  are  to  have    the 
book." 

Ray  hesitated.     "Well  —  not  on  those  old  ten-per 
cent,  terms,  Brandreth." 

"  Oh,  I  think  we  can  arrange  the  terms  all  right," 
said  Mr.  Brandreth. 

"  Because  I  can  do  much  better,  you  know." 
"  Oh,  they've  been  after  you,  have  they  ?  " 
The  young  fellow  held  up  the  fingers  of  one  hand. 
"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Brandreth,  "  your  next  book  be 
longs    to  Chapley    &   Co.     You  want   to   keep    your 
books  together.     One  will  help  sell  the  other.    A  Rose 
by   any  other  Name  will  wake  up  A  Modern  Romeo 
when  it  comes  out." 


XLIV. 

FOR  Peace  Hughes  and  her  sister,  the  summer 
passed  uneventfully.  The  girl  made  up  for  the  time 
she  had  lost  earlier  in  the  year  by  doing  double  duty 
at  the  increased  business  of  the  publishing  house. 
The  prosperity  of  A  Modern  Romeo  had  itself  added 
to  her  work,  and  the  new  enterprises  which  its  success 
had  inspired  Mr.  Branclreth  to  consider  meant  more 
letter-writing  and  more  formulation  of  the  ideas  which 
he  struck  shapelessly  if  boldly  out.  He  trusted  her 
advice  as  well  as  her  skill,  and  she  had  now  become 
one  of  the  regular  readers  for  Chapley  &  Co. 

Ray  inferred  this  from  the  number  of  manuscripts 
which  he  saw  on  her  table  at  home,  and  he  could  not 
help  knowing  the  other  things  through  his  own  ac 
quaintance,  which  was  almost  an  intimacy,  with  Mr. 
Brandreth's  affairs.  The  publisher  was  always  prais 
ing  her.  "  Talk  about  men  !  "  he  broke  out  one  day. 
"  That  girl  has  a  better  business  head  than  half  the 
business  men  in  New  York.  If  she  were  not  a  woman, 
it  would  be  only  a  question  of  time  when  we  should 
have  to  offer  her  a  partnership,  or  run  the  risk  of  los 
ing  her.  But  there's  only  one  kind  of  partnership  you 
can  offer  a  woman."  Ray  flushed,  but  he  did  not  say 
anything,  and  Mr.  Branclreth  asked,  apparently  from 


361  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

some  association  in  his  mind,  "  Do  you  see  much  of 
them  at  their  new  place  ?  " 

"Yes  ;  I  go  there  every  week  or  so." 

"  How  are  they  getting  on  ?  " 

"  Very  well,  I  believe."  Ray  mused  a  moment,  and 
then  he  said  :  "  If  it  were  not  contrary  to  all  our  pre 
conceptions  of  a  sort  of  duty  in  people  who  have  been 
through  what  they  have  been  through,  I  should  say 
they  were  both  happier  than  I  ever  saw  them  before. 
I  don't  think  Mrs.  Den  ton  cared  a  great  deal  for  her 
children  or  husband,  but  in  her  father's  last  days  he 
wouldn't  have  anybody  else  about  him.  She  strikes 
one  like  a  person  who  would  get  married  again." 

Mr.  Brandreth  listened  with  the  air  of  one  trying  to 
feel  shocked  ;  but  he  smiled. 

"  I  don't  blame  her,"  Ray  continued.  "  Perhaps  old 
Kane's  habit  of  not  blaming  people  is  infectious.  She 
once  accounted  for  herself  on  the  ground  that  she 
didn't  make  herself ;  I  suppose  it  might  be  rather 
dangerous  ground  if  people  began  to  take  it  generally. 
But  Miss  Hughes  did  care  for  those  poor  little  souls 
and  for  that  wretched  creature,  and  now  the  care's 
gone,  and  the  relief  has  come.  They  both  miss  their 
father ;  but  he  was  doomed ;  he  had  to  die ;  and  be 
sides,  his  fatherhood  struck  me  as  being  rather  thin,  at 
times,  from  having  been  spread  out  over  a  community 
so  long.  I  can't  express  it  exactly,  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  the  children  of  a  man  who  is  trying  to  bring  about 
a  millennium  of  any  kind  do  not  have  a  good  time. 
Still,  I  suppose  we  must  have  the  millenniums." 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  365 

"You  said  that  just  like  old  Kane,"  Mr.  Brandreth 
observed. 

"  Did  I  ?  I  just  owned  he  was  infectious.  If  I've 
caught  his  habit  of  mind,  I  dare  say  I've  caught  his 
accent.  I  don't  particularly  admire  either.  But  what 
I  mean  is  that  Miss  Hughes  and  her  sister  are  getting 
on  very  comfortably  and  sweetly.  Their  place  is  as 
homelike  as  any  I  know  in  New  York." 

"  As  soon  as  we  get  back  in  the  fall,  Mrs.  Brandreth 
is  going  to  call  on  them.  Now  that  Mr.  Chapley  and 
Mr.  Hughes  are  out  of  the  way,  there's  no  reason 
why  we  shouldn't  show  them  some  attention.  Miss 
Hughes,  at  least,  is  a  perfect  lady.  I'm  going  to  see 
that  she  doesn't  overwork ;  the  success  of  A  Modern 
Borneo  has  killed  us  nearly  all ;  I'm  going  to  give  her 
a  three  weeks'  vacation  toward  the  end  of  August." 

Ray  called  upon  Peace  one  evening  in  the  beginning 
of  her  vacation,  and  found  her  with  the  manuscript  of 
a  book  before  her  ;  Mrs.  Denton  was  sitting  with  the 
Simpsons  on  their  front  steps,  and  sent  him  on  up  to 
Peace  when  he  declined  to  join  her  there. 

He  said,  "  I  supposed  I  should  find  you  reading  up 
the  Adirondack  guide-books,  or  trying  to  decide  be 
tween  Newport  and  Saratoga.  I  don't  see  how  your 
outing  differs  very  much  from  your  inning." 

"  This  was  only  a  book  I  brought  home  because  I 
had  got  interested  in  it,"  the  girl  explained  in  self-de 
fence.  "  We're  not  going  away  anywhere." 

"  I  think  I  would  stay  myself."  said  Ray,  "  if  it  were 
not  for  wanting  to  see  my  family.  My  vacation  begins 
to-morrow." 


366  THE    AVOKLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"  Does  it  ?  " 

"  Yes ;  and  I  should  be  very  willing  to  spend  my 
fortnight  excursioning  around  New  York.  But  I'm  off 
at  once  to-night ;  I  came  in  to  say  good-by.  I  hope 
you'll  miss  me." 

"  We  shall  miss  you  very  much,"  she  said  ;  and  she 
added,  "  I  suppose  most  of  our  fashionable  friends  have 
gone  out  of  town." 

"Have  they?" 

"  I  should  think  you  would  know.  We  had  them 
at  second-hand  from  you." 

"  Oh  !  Those  ?  "  said  Hay.  "  Yes.  They're  gone, 
and  I'm  going.  I  hate  to  leave  you  behind.  Have 
you  any  message  for  the  country  ?  " 

"  Only  my  love."  She  faced  the  manuscript  down 
on  the  table  before  her,  and  rocked  softly  to  and  fro  a 
moment.  "  It  does  make  me  a  little  homesick  to  think 
of  it,"  she  said,  with  touching  patience. 

He  felt  the  forlornness  in  her  accent,  and  a  sense  of 
her  isolation  possessed  him.  When  Mrs.  Denton 
should  marry  again,  Peace  would  be  alone  in  the 
world.  He  looked  at  her,  and  she  seemed  very  little 
and  slight,  to  make  her  way  single-handed. 

"  Peace !  "  he  said,  and  the  intensity  of  his  voice 
startled  him.  "  There  is  something  I  wanted  to  say 
to  you  —  to  ask  you,"  and  he  was  aware  of  her  listen 
ing  as  intensely  as  he  spoke,  though  no  change  of 
attitude  or  demeanor  betrayed  the  fact ;  he  had  to  go 
on  in  a  lighter  strain  if  he  went  on  at  all.  ''You 
know,  I  suppose,  what  a  rich  man  I  am  going  to  be 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  367 

when  I  get  the  copyright  on  my  book.  It's  almost 
incredible,  but  I'm  going  to  be  worth  five  or  six  thou 
sand  dollars  ;  to  be  as  rich  as  most  millionaires.  Well 
—  I  asked  you  to  let  me  be  your  friend  once,  because  I 
didn't  think  a  man  who  was  turning  out  a  failure  had 
the  right  to  ask  to  be  more.  Or,  no  !  That  isn't  it !  " 
he  broke  off,  shocked  by  the  false  ring  of  his  words. 
"I  don't  know  how  to  say  it.  I  was  in  love  once  — 
very  much  in  love  ;  the  kind  of  love  that  I've  put  into 
my  book  ;  and  this  —  this  worship  that  I  have  for  you, 
for  I  do  worship  you  !  —  it  isn't  the  same.  Peace.  It's 
everything  that  honors  you,  and  once  it  was  like  that ; 
but  now  I'm  not  sure.  But  I  couldn't  go  away  with 
out  offering  you  my  worship,  for  you  to  accept  for  all 
our  lives  ;  or  reject,  if  it  wasn't  enough.  Do  you 
understand  ?  " 

"I  do  understand,"  the  girl  returned,  and  she  ner 
vously  pressed  the  hand  which  she  allowed  to  gather 
hers  into  it. 

"  I  couldn't  leave  you,"  he  went  on,  u  without  telling 
you  that  there  is  no  one  in  the  world  that  I  honor  so 
much  as  you.  I  had  it  in  my  heart  to  say  this  long 
ago ;  but  it  seems  such  a  strange  thing  to  stop  with. 
If  I  didn't  think  you  so  wise  and  so  good,  I  don't  be 
lieve  I  could  say  it  to  you.  I  know  that  now  what 
ever  you  decide  will  be  right,  and  the  best  for  us  both. 
I  couldn't  bear  to  have  you  suppose  I  would  keep 
coming  to  see  you  without  —  I  would  have  told  you 
this  long  ago,  but  I  always  expected  to  tell  you  more. 

But  I'm  twenty-six  now,  and  perhaps  I  shall   never 
24 


368  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

feel  in  that  old  way  again.  I  know  our  lives  would  be 
united  in  the  highest  things;  and  you  would  save^me 
from  living  for  myself  alone.  What  do  you  say, 
Peace  ?  " 

He  waited  for  her  to  break  the  silence  which  he  did 
not  know  how  to  interpret.  At  last  she  said  "  No  !  " 
and  she  drew  back  from  him  and  took  her  hand  away. 
"  It  wouldn't  be  right.  I  shouldn't  be  afraid  to  trust 
you  "  — 

"  Then  why  "  — 

"  For  I  know  how  faithful  you  are.  But  1'iajafraid 
—  I  knoiv  —  I  don't  love  you!  .And  without  that  it 
would  be  a  sacrilege.  That  isn't  enough  of  itself,  but 
everything  else  would  be  nothing  without  it."  As  if 
she  felt  the  wound  her  words  must  have  dealt  to  his 
self-love,  she  hurried  on  :  "  I  did  love  you  once.  Yes  ! 
I  did.  And  when  Mr.  Brandreth~wanted  irie  foTead 
your  book  that- time,  I  wouldn't,  because"  I  was  afraid 
of  myself.  But  afterwards  it  —  went."  * 

"  Was  it  my  fault?  "  Ray  asked. 

"  It  wasn't  any  one's  fault,"  said  the  girl.  "  If  I 
had  not  been  so  unhappy,  it  might  have  been  different." 

"  Oh,  Peace  !  " 

"But  I  had  no  heart  for  it.  And  now  my  life  must 
go  on  just  as  it  is.  I  have  thought  it  all  out.  I 
thought  that  some  time  you  might  tell  me  —  what  you 
have  —  or  different  —  and  I  tried  to  think  what  I 
ought  to  do.  I  shall  never  care  for  any  one  else ;  I 
shall  never  get  married.  Don't  think  I  shall  be  un 
happy  !  I  can  take  good  care  of  myself,  and  Jenny 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  369 

and  I  will  not  be  lonesome  together.  Even  if  we 
don't  always  live  together  —  still,  I  can  always  make 
myself  a  home.  I'm  not  afraid  to  be  an  old  maid. 
There  is  work  in  the  world  for  me  to  do,  and  I  can 
do  it.  Is  it  so  strange  I  should  be  saying  this  ?  " 

"  No,  no.     It's  right," 

"  I  suppose  that  most  of  the  girls  you  know  wouldn't 
do  it.  But  I  have  been  brought  up  differently.  In 
the  Family  they  did  not  think  that  marriage  was  always 
the  best  thing  ;  and  when  I  saw  how  Jenny  and  Ansel 
—  I  don't  mean  that  it  would  ever  have  been  like 
that !  But  I  don't  wish  you  to  think  that  life  wrill  be 
hard  or  unhappy  for  me.  And  you  —  you  will  find 
somebody  that  you  can  feel  towards  as  you  did  towards 
that  first  girl." 

"  Never  !  I  shall  never  care  for  any  one  again  !  " 
he  cried.  At  the  bottom  of  his  heart  there  was  a  re 
lief  which  he  tried  to  ignore,  though  he  could  not  deny 
himself  a  sense  of  the  unique  literary  value  of  the 
situation.  It  was  from  a  consciousness  of  this  relief 
that  he  asked,  "  And  what  do  you  think  of  me,  Peace  ? 
Do  you  blame  me  ?  " 

"  Blame  you  ?     How  ?     For  my  having  changed  ?  " 

"  I  feel  to  blame,"  said  the  young  man.  "  How 
shall  we  do,  now  ?  Shall  I  come  to  see  you  when  I 
return  ?  " 

"  Yes.     But  we  won't  speak  of  this  again." 

"  Shall  you  tell  Mrs.  Denton  ?  " 

"Of  course." 

"  She  will  blame  me." 


370  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

"She  will  blame  me"  said  Peace.  "But  —  I  shall 
not  be  troubled,  and  you  mustn't,"  she  said,  and  she 
lightly  touched  him.  "  This  is  just  as  I  wish  it  to  be. 
I've  been  afraid  that  if  this  ever  happened,  I  shouldn't 
have  the  courage  to  tell  you  what  I  have.  But  you 

O  «/  » 

helped  me,  and  I  am  so  glad  you  did !  I  was  afraid 
you  would  say  something  that  would  blind  me,  and 
keep  me  from  going  on  in  the  right  way  ;  but  now  — 
Good-night." 

"Good-night,"  said  Ray,  vaguely.  "May  I  — 
dream  of  you,  Peace  ?  " 

"  If  you'll  stop  at  daybreak." 

"  Ah,  then  I  shall  begin  to  think  of  you." 


XLV. 

THEY  had  certainly  come  to  an  understanding,  and 
for  Ray  at  least  there  "was  release  from  the  obscure 
sense  of  culpability  which  had  so  long  harassed  him. 
He  knew  that  unless  he  was  sure  of  his  love  for  Peace, 
he  was  to  blame  for  letting  her  trust  it;  but  now  that 
!  he  had  spoken,  and  spoken  frankly,  it  had  freed  them 
,  both  to  go  on  and  be  friends  without   fear  for  each 
\  other.     Her  confession  that   there   had  been  a    time 
when  she  loved  him  flattered  his  vanity  out  of  the  pain 
of  knowing  that  she  did  not  love  him  now ;  it  consoled 
him,  it  justified  him  ;  for  the  offence  which  he  had  ac 
cused  himself  of  was  of  no  other  kind  than  hers.     How 
wisely,    how   generously    she   had    taken    the    whole 
matter ! 

The  question  whether  she  had  not  taken  it  more 
generously  than  he  merited  began  to  ask  itself.  She 
might  have  chosen  to  feign  a  parity  with  him  in  this. 
He  had  read  of  women  who  sacrificed  their  love  to 
their  love ;  and  consented  to  a  life-long  silence,  or 
practised  a  life-long  deceit,  that  the  men  they  loved 
might  never  know  they  loved  them.  He  had  never 
personally  known  of  such  a  case,  but  the  books  were 
full  of  such  cases.  This  might  be  one  of  them.  Or  it 
might  much  more  simply  and  probably  be  that  she  had 


372  THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 

received  his  strange  declaration  as  she  did  in  order  to 
spare  his  feelings.  If  that  were  true  she  had  already 
told  her  sister,  and  Mrs.  Denton  had  turned  the  absurd 
side  of  it  to  the  light,  and  had  made  Peace  laugh  it 
over  with  her. 

A  cold  perspiration  broke  out  over  him  at  the  notion, 
which  he  rejected  upon  a  moment's  reflection  as  un 
worthy  of  Peace.  He  got  back  to  his  compassionate 
admiration  of  her,  as  he  walked  down  to  the  ferry  and 
began  his  homeward  journey.  He  looked  about  the 
boat,  and  fancied  it  the  same  he  had  crossed  to  New 
York  in,  when  he  came  to  the  city  nearly  a  year  before- 
The  old  negro  who  whistled,  limped  silently  through 
the  long  saloon ;  he  glanced  from  right  to  left  on  the 
passengers,  but  he  must  have  thought  them  too  few, 
or  not  in  the  mood  for  his  music.  Ray  wondered  if 
he  whistled  only  for  the  incoming  passengers.  He  re 
called  every  circumstance  of  his  acquaintance  with 
Peace,  from  the  moment  she  caught  his  notice  when 
Mrs.  Denton  made  her  outcry  about  the  pocket-book. 
He  saw  how  once  it  had  seemed  to  deepen  to  love,  and 
then  had  ceased  to  do  so,  but  he  did  not  see  how. 
There  had  been  everything  in  it  to  make  them  more  to 
each  other,  but  after  a  certain  time  they  had  grown 
less.  It  was  not  so  strange  to  him  that  he  had  changed ; 
he  had  often  changed ;  but  we  suppose  a  constancy  in 
others  as  to  all  passions  which  we  cannot  exact  of  our 
selves.  He  tried  to  think  what  he  had  done  to  alienate 
the  love  which  she  confessed  she  once  had  for  him,  and 
he  could  not  remember  anything  unless  it  was  his 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE.  373 

cruelty  to  her  when  he  found  that  she  was  the  friend 
who  would  not  look  at  his  story  a  second  time.  She 
gaid  she  had  forgiven  him  that ;  but  perhaps  she  had 
not ;  perhaps  she  had  divined  a  potential  brutality  in 
him,  which  made  her  afraid  to  trust  him.  But  after 
that  their  lives  had  been  united  in  the  most  intimate 
anxieties,  and  she  had  shown  absolute  trust  in  him. 
He  reviewed  his  conduct  toward  her  throughout,  arid 
he  could  find  no  blame  in  it  except  for  that  one  thing. 
He  could  truly  feel  that  he  had  been  her  faithful  friend, 
and  the  friend  of  her  whole  uncomfortable  family,  in 
spite  of  all  his  prejudices  and  principles  against  people 
of  that  kind.  In  the  recognition  of  this  fact  he  enjoyed 
a  moment's  sense  of  injury,  which  was  heightened  when 
he  reflected  that  he  had  even  been  willing  to  sacrifice 
his  pride,  after  his  brilliant  literary  success,  so  far  as 
to  offer  himself  to  a  girl  who  worked  for  her  living ; 
it  had  always  galled  him  that  she  held  a  place  little 
better  than  a  type-writer's.  No,  he  had  nothing  to 
accuse  himself  of,  after  a  scrutiny  of  his  behavior  re 
peated  in  every  detail,  and  applied  in  complex,  again 
and  again,  with  helpless  iteration.  Still  lie  had  a 
remote  feeling  of  self-reproach,  which  he  tried  to  verify, 
but  which  forever  eluded  him.  It  was  mixed  up  with 
that  sense  of  escape,  which  made  him  ashamed. 

He  lay  awake  in  the  sleeping-car  the  greater  part  of 
the  night,  and  turned  from  side  to  side,  seeking  for  the 
reason  of  a  thing  that  can  never  have  any  reason,  and 
trying  to  find  some  parity  between  his  expectations 
and  experiences  of  himself  in  such  an  affair.  It  went 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


tlwettgh4«s-mmdj;hat  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  write 
a  story  with  some  suchsituatipn  injlt;  only  the  reader 
wowIrT  not  j=j|andi.t.  People  expected  love  to  begin 
mysteriously,  but  they  did  not  like  it  to  end  so  ;  though 
life  itself  began  mysteriously  and  ended  so.  He  be 
lieved  that  he  should  really  try  it ;  a  story  that  opened 
with  an  engagement  ought  to  be  as  interesting  as  one 
that  closed  with  an  engagement ;  and  it  would  be  very 
original.  He  must  study  his  own  affair  very  closely 
when  he  got  a  little  further  away  from  it.  There  was 
no  doubt  but  that  when  the  chances  that  favored  love 
were  so  many  and  so  recognizable,  the  chance  that 
undid  it  could  at  last  be  recognized.  It  was  merely  a 
chance,  and  that  ought  to  be  shown. 

IJe  began  to  wonder  if  life  had  not  all  been  a  chance 
with  him.  Nothing,  not  even  the  success  of  his  book, 
in  the  fight  he  now  looked  at  it  in.  was  the  result  of 
reasoned  cause.  That  success  had  happened  ;  it  had 
riot  followed  ;  and  he  didn't  deserve  any  praise  for 
what  had  merely  happened.  If  this  apparent  fatality 
were  confined  to  the  economic  worTd  alone,  he  would 
have  "been  willing  to  censTrrtT^vm  his 

-chance  dumbly  blindly,  with  tlie^rest^file  had  not 
found  it  so.     On  the  contrary,  he  had  found  the  same 
caprice,  the  same  rule  of  mere  casualty,  in  the  world 
which  we  suppose  to  be  ordered  by  law  —  the  world 
of  thinking,  the  world  of  feeling.}   Who  knew  why  or 
>w  this  or  that  thought  came,  this  or  that  feeling? 
lien,  in  that  world  where  we  lived  in  the  spirit,  was 
rrong  always  punished,  was  right  always  rewarded? 


THE    WORLD    OF    CHANCE. 


375 


We  must  own  that  we  often  saw  the  good  unhappy,  and 
the  wicked  enjoying  themselves.     This  was  not  just 
yet  somehow  we  felt,  we  knew,  that  justice  ruled  the 

A  universe.  "Nothing,  then,  tKaT '  seemed_c]iance  was 
really  chance._It_wa&_lhe.  operation  of  a  law  so  large 
that  \vc  caught  a  glimpse  of  its  vast  orbit  once  or 
twice  in  a  lifetime.  It  was  Providence. 

The  car  rushed  on  through  the  night  with  its  succes 
sion  of  smooth  impulses.  The  thought  of  the  old 
friends  he  should  soon  meet  began  to  dispossess  the 
cares  and  questions  that  had  ridden  him ;  the  notion  of 
certain  girls  at  Midland  haunted  him  sweetly,  warmly. 
He  told  that  one  who  first  read  his  story  all  about 

'  \  Peace  Hughes,  and  she  said  they  had  never  really 
3een  in  love,  for  love  was  eternal.  After  a  while  he 
ilrowsed,  and  then  he  heard  her  saying  that  he  had 
rot  that  notion  of  the  larger  law  from  old  Kane. 
Then  it  was  not  he,  and  not-she.  It  was  nothing. 


: 


' 


BY  MAKY  E.  WILKINS. 


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It  takes  just  such  distinguishing  literary  art  as  Mary  E. 
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The  simplicity,  purity,  and  quaintness  of  these  stories  set 
them  apart  in  a  niche  of  distinction  where  they  have  no  rivals. 
— Literary  World,  Boston. 

The  author  has  the  unusual  gift  of  writing  a  short  story  which 
is  complete  in  itself,  having  a  real  beginning,  a  middle,  and  an 
end. — Observer,  N.  Y. 

A  gallery  of  striking  studies  in  the  humblest  quarters  of 
American  country  life.  No  one  has  dealt  with  this  kind  of 
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The  charm  of  Miss  Wilkins's  stories  is  in  her  intimate  ac 
quaintance  and  comprehension  of  humble  life,  and  the  sweet 
human  interest  she  feels  and  makes  her  readers  partake  of,  in 
the  simple,  common,  homely  people  she  draws. — Springfield 
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The  author  has  given  us  studies  from  real  life  Avhich  must 
be  the  result  of  a  lifetime  of  patient,  sympathetic  observation. 
...  No  one  has  done  the  same  kind  of  work  so  lovingly  and  so 
well. —  Christian  Register,  Boston. 


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There  is  a  certain  bright  cheerfulness  in  Miss  Woolson's  writing 
which  invests  all  her  characters  with  lovable  qualities.—  Jewish  Advo 
cate,  N.  Y. 

Miss  Woolson  is  among  our  few  successful  writers  of  interesting 
magazine  stories,  and  her  skill  and  power  are  perceptible  in  the  de 
lineation  of  her  heroines  no  less  than  in  the  suggestive  pictures  of 
local  life. — Jewish  Messenger,  N.  Y. 

Constance  Fenimore  Woolson  may  easily  become  the  novelist  lau 
reate — Boston  Globe. 

Miss  Woolson  has  a  graceful  fancy,  a  ready  wit,  a  polished  style,  and 
conspicuous  dramatic  power ;  while  her  skill  in  the  development  of  a 
story  is  very  remarkable.—  London  Life. 

Miss  Woolson  never  once  follows  the  beaten  track  of  the  orthodox 
novelist,  but  strikes  a  new  and  richly-loaded  vein,  which  so  far  is  all 
her  own  ;  and  thus  we  feel,  on  reading  one  of  her  works,  a  fresh  sen 
sation,  and  we  put  down  the  book  with  a  sigh  to  think  our  pleasant 
task  of  reading  it  is  finished.  The  author's  lines  must  have  fallen  to 
her  in  very  pleasant  places ;  or  she  has,  perhaps,  within  herself  the 
wealth  of  womanly  love  and  tenderness  she  pours  so  freely  into  all 
she  writes.  Such  books  as  hers  do  much  to  elevate  the  moral  tone  of 
the  day— a  quality  sadly  wanting  in  novels  of  the  time.  —  Whitehall 
Review,  London. 

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BEN-HUE : 

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2  volumes.  Illustrated  with  twenty  full-page  photo 
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and  Gold,  Uncut  Edges  and  Gilt  Tops,  $7  00.  (In  a 
Gladstone  box.) 

Anything  so  startling,  new,  and  distinctive  as  the  leading  feature  of 
this  romance  does  not  often  appear  in  works  of  fiction.  .  .  .  Some  of 
Mr.  Wallace's  writing  is  remarkable  for  its  pathetic  eloquence.  The 
scenes  described  in  the  New  Testament  are  rewritten  with  the  power 
and  skill  of  an  accomplished  master  of  style.— iV.  Y.  Times. 

Its  real  basis  is  a  description  of  the  life  of  the  Jews  and  Romans  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and  this  is  both  forcible  and  brill 
iant.  .  .  .We  are  carried  through  a  surprising  variety  of  scenes;  we 
witness  a  sea-fight,  a  chariot-race,  the  internal  economy  of  a  Roman 
galley,  domestic  interiors  at  Autioch,  at  Jerusalem,  and  among  the 
tribes  of  the  desert;  palaces,  prisons,  the  haunts  of  dissipated  Roman 
youth,  the  houses  of  pious  families  of  Israel.  There  is  plenty  of  ex 
citing  incident;  everything  is  animated,  vivid,  and  glowing.—  N.  Y. 
Tribune. 

It  is  full  of  poetic  beauty,  as  though  born  of  an  Eastern  sage,  and 
there  is  sufficient  of  Oriental  customs,  geography,  nomenclature,  etc., 
to  greatly  strengthen  the  semblance. — Boston  Commonwealth. 

"  Ben-Hur  "  is  interesting,  and  its  characterization  is  fine  and  strong. 
Meanwhile  it  evinces  careful  study  of  the  period  in  which  the  scene  is 
laid,  and  will  help  those  who  read  it  with  reasonable  attention  to  real 
ize  the  nature  and  conditions  of  Hebrew  life  in  Jerusalem  and  Ro 
man  life  at  Autioch  at  the  time  of  our  Saviour's  advent.— Examiner, 
N.Y. 

The  book  is  one  of  unquestionable  power,  and  will  be  read  with  un 
wonted  interest  by  many  readers  who  are  weary  of  the  conventional 
novel  and  romance. — Boston  Journal. 


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TESS  OF  THE  D'URBERVILLES. 

A  Pure  Woman,  Faithfully  Presented.  By  THOMAS 
HARDY,  author  of  "The  Woodlanders,"  "A  Laodi 
cean,"  etc.  Illustrated.  Post  8vo,  Cloth,  Orna 
mental,  $1  50.  New  Edition,  revised  and  consider 
ably  expanded  by  the  author,  according  to  the  latest 
English  edition. 

A  remarkably  fine  and  moving  story.  It  is  marked  by  all 
those  qualities  of  genius  which  we  are  accustomed  to  associate 
with  the  work  of  Mr.  Hardy.  It  is  full  of  poetry  of  incident  and 
phrase A  great  story.  Nobody- should  miss  it. — N.  Y.  Sun. 

In  "Tess  of  the  D'Urbervilles  "  Thomas  Hardy  exhibits  the 
strongest,  and  in  some  respects  the  best,  piece  of  literary  work 
that  has  ever  left  his  pen. — PhiladelpJiia  Ledger. 

One  of  the  few  great  novels  of  tiie  century. — N.  Y.  Mail 
and  Express. 

Not  only  by  far  the  best  work  Mr.  Hardy  has  done ;  it  is  one 
of  the  strongest  novels  that  have  appeared  for  a  long  time.  .  .  . 
A  more  tragic  or  powerfully  moving  story  than  that  of  Tess  lives 
not  in  fiction;  and  the  pity  of  it  is  heightened  by  the  exquisite 
pastoral  scenes  in  which  it  is  mainly  set.  .  .  .  The  book  is  full 
of  suggestion  on  questions  which  have  never  agitated  men's 
minds  more  than  at  the  present  time.  ...  It  is  certainly  a  mas 
terpiece,  and  one  upon  which  the  reputation  of  the  author  may 
safely  rest. — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

Mr.  Hardy  has  written  a  novel  that  is  not  only  good,  but 
great.  .  .  .  "Tess  of  the  D'Urbervilles"  is  well  in  front  of  Mr. 
Hardy's  previous  work,  and  is  destined,  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
to  rank  high  among  the  achievements  of  Victorian  novelists. — 
Athenaeum,  London. 

The  best  English  novel  that  has  appeared  for  many  a  day. 
.  .  .  The  book  is  the  most  ingeniously  constructed  and  artisti 
cally  developed  that  has  been  produced  by  an  English  novelist 
since  George  Eliot's  time. — Philadelphia  Bulletin. 

Powerful  and  strange  in  design,  splendid  and  terrible  in  exe 
cution,  this  story  brands  itself  upon  the  mind  as  with  the  touch 
of  incandescent  iron. — Academy,  London. 


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University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4 
days  prior  to  due  date. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


APR  2    1998 


12,000(11/95)  LEY 

®s 


General  Library 
University  of  California 


II 


r 


U.C.BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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1547«8 

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